The great link exchange myth

Written by Daniel Ashton | 03 November 2010
Posted in seo

Are any other webmasters and designers out there beginning to get a little ticked off with opening up your emails to find 50 odd link exchange requests from all manner of different website?

"No" I hear you say, "but this is great for my websites search engine ranking." Well think again, I'm about to shatter the link exchange myth. Inbound links are all good and well, they count as a vote for your website, but Google have got cleaver. With ever increasingly complicated algorithms the guys at Google have managed to incorporate link relevance when considering inbound links.

A one-way inbound link to your site is pretty much always a good thing, but once that link is reciprocated things start to get very complicated.

The success of Google relies on them providing the user with the most relevant content to their search. If number of inbound links was the only factor they considering when ranking a site this would mean whoever sat in front of their PC for long enough exchanging links would achieve a high ranking.

The result, Google now penalise website with inbound links from irelavent websites. So there is no point in having a link to your gardening website from a music stores site for example.

So now you know you can cast aside all those irrelevant link requests, but there is more.

When you receive a link exchange request it is vital you have a good look at the site the request has come from. Some sites have been specifically designed to trick the search engines, exchanging huge amounts of links, for example if the site you have received the request from has more than 30 links on their link page you might as well forget it. Google will recognise this and penalise each site involved in the link exchange. Some directory sites have got wise to this and there is a common trick I am starting to see more and more of.

To illustrator I will use a site called The Web Design Directory. I'm no going to link to them here as to be honest they don't deserve a link, but you should find them through a .co.uk Google search. I was happily building links to my site, so I thought it would be worth submitting a link as the directory seemed relevant. So I filled in the form and added their link to my site as this was a requirement for them to list me. I clicked submit and received a message saying, "your link has been submitted, please be aware that it could take up to 3 months to post your link due to the volume of link requests we receive".

Maybe that sounds fare enough, but think about it, they now have a one way link from my site to theirs for 3 months! This is a scam, I'd be surprised if they ever actually get around to posting the link. I've left them on my links page and noted them on my link tracking worksheet, just so I can see in 3 months if I ever get my back-link.

As a result of this I carried out some more research into link exchanging and the effects. I found this good article that explains some of what I have talked about and more. At this stage it is just a myth, but the article talks about a new addition to Google's algorithm, something known as the Trust Rank. Lets remember that the guys at Google are probably amongst the most intelligent on our planet, so lets not underestimate them.

Search Engine Optimisation

Written by Daniel Ashton | 19 October 2010
Posted in seo

Devon SEO Services

Salcombe Web Design have now branched into SEO services. If you've ever wondered how you get yourself on the front page of the Google search results, we can now help you get there.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) target paid listings. In general, the earlier (or higher on the page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine.

We offer this service to existing and new clients and we have 2 levels of service available.

Local SEO Campaign
National SEO Campaign

So why trust us?

At Salcombe Web Design we have a very simple guarantee, if you're not happy with the work we do, we'll give you your money back. We believe in this so much, that if we fail to get you on the front page of Google for at least one of your search phrases within 6 months, we'll give you your money back.

Still not convinced?

Why not take this opportunity to order one of our free website assessments/audits. We'll take a good look at your website and provide you with a bound document of research and suggestions, showing everything from your current search engine positions, your competition levels, the keywords your site currently ranks for and new recommended keywords. We'll provide a list of recommended alterations along with a free no obligation quote for any alterations we recommend.