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THE TRUTH ABOUT RECIPROCAL
LINKS
You Are Being Misled About Reciprocal Links!
Exchanging links has been
an important part of generating traffic since
the concept of Internet marketing was first
established, but at least 90% of people looking
to trade links don't understand the real
benefits and, therefore, fail to make the most
of them.
The vast majority of web
site owners think that exchanging links is only
helpful because it can boost their rankings in
search engines such as Google.com. They are
however, useful for this purpose since the
number of links back to a site is figured into
ranking calculations. But according to
WebSideStory's StatMarket Web site optimization
service, search engines account for only little
more than 13% of an average web site's traffic.
The most important benefit
of a link exchange is the traffic resulting
directly from these links. That same StatMarket
research found that 21% of site visitors get
there via links which means the links
themselves are more useful than the search
engine listings!
Search engines can be
unpredictable. Their algorithms change on an
ongoing basis. Your site can be in the top 10
results today, but may not be tomorrow.
I'm not saying you should
neglect the search engines. However, your main
concern should be getting traffic from direct
links. Search engine ranking should be your
secondary concern.
Furthermore, your links
page can serve as an excellent resource for
your visitors. As any Internet marketer will
tell you, it's the content that makes a
successful site. When you provide useful links
for your visitors, your site becomes more
credible, more helpful, and more likely to be
bookmarked for future visits - all of which
adds up to a steady stream of traffic.
So how do you identify
sites that can send you more of direct traffic?
Here are some pointers to consider while
exchanging links:
1) Look out for sites that
have good content
Content is the #1 reason
people go online. If a site has good content,
more number of repeat visitors it'll have.
2) Look out for sites that
display a prominent link to their links page on
their home page as well as on rest of the pages
When I say prominent, I
don't mean a link with h1 font size! What I
mean is that the link should not be less
prominent than the rest of links on the site.
Many web masters,
particularly those who want links to help only
their search engine ranking, will hide their
links page or place it only on their home page,
some where at the bottom with a -1 font size.
The most common reason for doing this is a fear
of losing visitors, but that fear is absolutely
unfounded when you really understand how the
Internet works.
Say your web site has a 1%
conversion ratio. That means for every 100
visitors that visit your site, you make one
sale. Now what about the rest 99. They are
looking for something else, isn't it? So what
do they do? They have 3 options:
a) Go back to the previous
site.
b) Visit your links page
(if you have one), hoping that they would find
the information on sites listed there.
c) End their browsing
session.
So which do you think is
the best option? I would definitely want my
visitors to go to my links page and visit my
link partners rather than go back. Why? Because
I know that my link partners will send a
percentage of their visitors back to my site,
thus offsetting any visitor loss.
A visitor exchange of this
kind works best when all link partners have a
prominent link to their links page on all the
pages of their web sites. Visitors are then
much more likely to move between the linked
sites.
There are some sites that
have their links page designed for link
partners rather than for their visitors!
They'll use the following
texts to link to their links page: "Let's
Trade Links", "Trade Links" and
so on... Such sites are more interested in
finding link partners than providing
information to their visitors. The end result
is link partners visiting each other's site.
3) Look out for sites that
have tightly themed and categorized links page
Sites that trade links
solely for search engine rankings have random
collections of links to hundreds of sites with
almost every imaginable theme. These links
pages are never going to be visited by people
looking for additional information. On the
other hand, sites that have their links
categorized are more user friendly and are more
likely to attract visitors.
Conclusion:
It is essential to keep
your visitors' interests in mind when designing
your links page. Looking for, and adding,
quality links, without this goal in mind is
pointless. You need to start thinking of your
links page as a service to your visitors rather
than just a means to achieving a higher search
engine ranking. Only with this perspective will
you be able to make the most of your reciprocal
links.
© 2004 Vishal P. Rao
Vishal
P. Rao is the owner of http://www.work-at-home-forum.com/.
A fast growing online community of people
who work from home.
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