Can Link Exchanges Still Work?
Link exchanges were introduced when there were relatively few blogs. People just didn’t go on the web to look for new content. They typically only visited a few sites per day, due to the speed of the Internet, and everything was more close-knit. Today, there are millions upon millions of blogs, and there are some that are so similar to one another, that it is difficult to tell them apart.
When you think about link exchanges, it traditionally revolves around sharing some of your favorite websites, with the other blogs returning the favor. Today, the only way to do this is by focusing on some of your favorite blogs, and linking to others through regular posts.
I’d have to say that blogs really do work. Think about the traffic that you can receive through Twitter. It is quite remarkable, and this is all through link sharing and distribution. People still click on links, and there are still benefits to linking to other blogs through prominent positions within your blog.
One of the other main reasons this practice stopped growing is when people discovered that you could make money selling the ad space where these links went, and ultimately, it became less prudent to share links.
Let’s say you are linked to by a popular site – receiving ten times the monthly traffic as you. There is a good chance that you will see an extra thousand or more visitors to your site. Even if you have a modestly popular site, this would amount to a steady increase in traffic as long as that link remains. Now, of course, some of the blog authors could remove the links, but you’ll still see some return on that initial link back to your site.
Your Thoughts – What do you think about link exchanges – do they still work or have they gone out of style and aren’t worth it?
Great post. Adsense definitely killed off a lot of emphasis on link exchange. A good blogroll is a sign of a good blogger, I think.
I think posting comments on blogs has become a way to do link exchange in a long-term, small-scale way.
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I think it still works, but now I have become more selective in exchanging link
I only choose a nice site with not so many blogroll links, I hate a site with tons of blogroll
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This is a good approach. Your visitors would rather see a few high quality links compared to a long list. After all, if we were able to get all our favorite sites to link to us, the list would probably be pages long.
I don’t do link exchanges because sometimes people little bit push me for that, so now I just doing link exchange by comment, not give blogroll links again
I think link exchanges were used too much initially, and the novelty of them wore off. Most popular blogs place “recommend” related sites within their sidebars, rather than asking one another for the links.
Still links exchange with my good friends, the process can take months. I always follow the blogs for month and if I’m sure that blogs active and post regular I’ll link exchange.
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Building links certainly takes time, and when bloggers change their designs, some drop this list, so the time is quite often lost. Getting high-quality links from popular blogs is one of the best practices for increasing search engine exposure.
link exchanges were so easy in the past. hop, comment, request for link exchange, then come back at a later time to see if the other party did his part in the link exchange. sometimes, blog relationships follow later.
then came monetization, page rank, and SEO. bloggers are now picky whom to ex-link. but still, there is value left in the link exchange. not as easy though like in the past (24-48 months ago)
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I have to agree with you. A lot of bloggers still rely too much on PageRank and traffic for linking to other blogs through blogrolls. After all, you want to link to sites that will provide you a stream of traffic. However, (at least in my opinion) it should be about creating relationships with others. However, that can be done through Twitter now through following and re-tweeting, so blogrolls/links will continue to perish.
Many of the top bloggers have a mindset where they believe that the overall design and image comes before content, simply due to their position in their respective markets.