I don’t know about you but I am getting a ton of emails from supposed Webmasters trying to exchange links with me. It’s usually a three way link exchange. It’s gone as far as when I declined, the webmaster emailed me again telling me that it would be in my best interest to exchange links with him as his website gets alot of traffic. Of course I again declined. To be honest I don’t have a need to exchange links with other websites. Not because I don’t want the traffic or I don’t think it will be beneficial. It’s because managing those links is time consuming….
Back to the topic of three way links. There has been some discussion on the web about whether they are relevant and whether Google can see them and counts them. The discussion on SE Rountable today: http://www.seobook.com/archives/000467.shtml and a discussion on SEOBook.com http://www.seobook.com/archives/000467.shtml back in August.
Now some people say it’s bad and some say it is good. But the facts are that, there are pitfalls and advantages.
The advantages (if done properly)
1. Relevant visitors and traffic
2. Link in from a good site.
3. Can build site authority and promote your website
Everyone and their dog is using the technique simply because they think it’s effective. In SEO once a god technique is found and people start over using it and it becomes automated, it is less effective. Google then figures a way out to track it. It may not yet be a bad thing but soon enough it will be.
Disadvantages
1. It has become automated
2. People are only doing it to manipulate the search engines
3. Google will eventually penalize people for it.
So to three way link or not?
My opinion is not to always go with the crowd, do it the old fashioned way. Hard work. I tend to plan for the long term. For example if I leave my website, www.beseenwebdesign.com alone for 6 months, my ranking will remain the same and so far that’s worked. Actually it’s gone up.
If you have ideas on three way link exchange please leave a comment, would love to hear others opinions.
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