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Reciprocal Linking - A Partnership
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By Joan Maughan
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Link popularity is becoming the latest "in-thing" to get yourwebsite ranking well with the Search Engines.
Getting links to your website is critical but there are someguidelines that should be followed for successful ReciprocalLinking. In addition, a lot of website owners are becomingparticularly choosey as to who they link with, and they cannotbe blamed for this. Linking to good quality websites isparamount.
So where does that leave the website owner with a low to averageGoogle Page Ranking?
We will presume for just a moment that your website has anoverall Google Page Ranking of between 0 and 3 (out of apossible 10). How can you improve this so that you have a betterchance of getting good quality reciprocal links?
Link exchange is not the only thing that helps increase yourWebsite Page Ranking. It is a combination of a number offactors, such as :
* Great relevant content. * Designed to keep the visitorinterested and informed. * Meta Tags should be well optimized. *Keyword density * Frequently updating the content.
There is a lot of free information regarding page ranking - justput "google page ranking" in the Google search bar for moredetails on this topic.
Back to Linking!
Developing a good Links Page on your website takes a lot ofeffort to start off, especially if you are doing it manually andnot using a Link Program.
You need to plan and organize your time so that you can evaluatepossible link partners thoroughly. You should check theirwebsite to ensure it is of high quality, providing relativeinformation and products to your website theme.
There are a few schools of thought regarding linking to"competitor" websites, some feel it is not a good thing.
However, personally I don't believe it to be detrimental as longas your website offers top quality information and products.After all a little bit of competition helps keep us on our toes.Whether shopping online or offline, people usually browse forbargains or the best quality before making a purchase.
This of course, works both ways as your site is also listed oncompetitor sites. So having a good balance of both competitorsites and related sites is the best answer.
Planning your links page is important in that you need todetermine how you want it to look, what categories you will haveand the size and positioning of the links. Will you just havetext links or will you accept banner links?
It is good practice to have the Link menu button placed in aprominent position on your home page. This is also a point toremember when evaluating possible link partners - on somewebsite you can spend ages searching for the Link button and theLink pages.
There is also the practice of placing extremely good beneficiallinks on other pages of your website. For example:
If your site is promoting health products you may very well wantto place a banner ad on your homepage for say a health magazine.
In most cases you will be required to place a link on yourwebsite first prior to requesting a link exchange. Once you haveplaced the link, send an email advising that you have visitedtheir site and believe a link exchange would be beneficial toboth parties. Mention something about the site that impressedyou, this way they will know you have actually visited theirwebsite. Endeavor to get a name to address the email to if atall possible.
Of course, many sites today have everything set up with formsthat enable you to just fill in your website details includingthe reciprocal link address. This does make the job much easier,but it is good business practice to send a confirmation emailadvising that their link is listed on your site and that youlook forward to a reciprocal linking arrangement.
This last step can be beneficial at a later date in that you maywant to approach them in the future with a joint ventureproposition for example. Linking is more than just swapping siteinformation, it can be the first step to a profitable businesspartnership.
A couple of important points to remember :
* Check all the links regularly to ensure they are working. *Check that your link is still listed on the partner site.
As your Link Pages grow, it will probably become necessary touse a Link Managing Program or Service, there are a number ofvery good ones available, some with a free trial period.
Happy Linking!
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