Link Exchange

SEO 101: link exchange helps your website appear higher in Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. search engine rankings. It’s a simple concept to understand, and it’s the foundation of understanding Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

I’m going to try to explain this as simply as I can. Its been explained to me in a number of different ways, most of which ended with me being lost in translation, but here’s the jist of it.

Think of the world wide web as a huge roadmap just like any major city. You want your website to be downtown! Why? Because there everyday people commute in and out of downtown from multiple starting points. There isn’t just one way in and out of the downtown core, nor is there just one way to get around. There are no site streets in a downtown, all the streets are relevant and go somewhere.

That’s the premise of link exchange. How many links (roads) are leading in and out of your website? How easy is it for the search engines to get to your site? If your only route in is by directly typing your physical address into the address bar, then you won’t be getting much traffic. Your website is like the rural areas where only the people who live there and the mailman can find you!

A great example is New York State. All Roads seem to lead to New York City and Manhattan. Look at how many access points there are to Manhattan! Once you’re there, every single street seems to have a land mark, be a commuter route, or just a 4 lane road. It is truly amazing how much traffic gets to, from and around New York City.

View Larger Map

Now do you see the comparison? Just like traffic in NYC, you want the traffic online to be able to get to and around your site. Let’s make this possible by utilizing link exchange as a first step. There are thousands of sites and companies, who can help you with site analytics, personally, I recommend trying out Compete.com and their Compete Pro tools.

Hey, you’ve found our site, I guess its working.

Take a look for more free tips, and suggestions to rank higher on search engines. Remember that for each, you might have to do things slightly differently; however, Google is the rule of thumb. If you can succeed getting into the top 5 rankings, or even onto page 1, you are making progress!

Work with relevant keywords, and take advantage of the free mediums to do so. If you need a complete database (if your products or industry are not as popular) then (once again) Compete Pro would be my suggestion because of the power of their audience measurement, search marketing, and historical web traffic metrics.

I’m sure you all can build those roads to your site and capitalize on traffic. Traffic are the leads to sales, make the roads relevant. Just like a road that has a dead end, a link that doesn’t do any good won’t be traveled on either.

Best of wealth