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Link Trading Myths Uncovered
Google has just sent the Search Marketing world into a frenzy of
hair pulling and nail biting. Its latest shake up of its
algorithm has put paid to unrestrained link swapping. It had
gone overboard like Meta tag stuffing before it. Even before
this latest revision, all signs indicate that the Search Engines
were beginning to devalue reciprocal links and forum signatures
in their SERP's .So what is a harried webmaster to do? Are
backlinks still relevant to search rankings? If they still
count, how do you acquire them without running afoul of the SE's?
The answer to that is Link Trading. Link trading also known as
Link Renting, is simply paying to have a link pointing to your
site from another site, usually, with a high or higher page
rank. In essence you are buying the linking site's traffic and,
if your own site is related, its search relevancy.
Link trading came into vogue even before the current SE
upheavals because it was often the only way a new or lowly
ranked site could get any links from authority sites. Its
principle advantage from a search rankings point of view is it
is a one-way link - the most valuable kind - and thus
constitutes a high quality link.
Secondly, link trading or renting if well executed can pull in
significant amounts of traffic. If you target a site with
relatively high traffic, you are likely to benefit from the
overflow - obtain traffic you would not otherwise have gotten.
Link trading also has a viral or branding effect leading on from
its traffic-generation benefit. More web surfers get to see your
link and if you properly optimize the link's anchor text, your
site profits from the resultant visibility. You also profit from
being associated with the site hosting your link, and if its
reputation is good, this will yield a powerful networking
advantage. The downside is clear - a site may have negative
connotations for your visitors, so researching them thoroughly
before buying your link space is critical.
As link renting becomes more popular, the number of sites
willing to sell link space increases. Given that the purpose for
most webmasters is to gain links from sites with relatively
higher PR, you should consider only sites that rate as authority
sites in your category. Over and above that, the usual factors
for quality linking should be taken into account. Briefly these
are:
1. Visitor Profile - choose only those sites that get the type
of surfer you are targeting.
2. Page Relevance - make sure that the title and body content of
the page hosting your link is relevant to the linked page on
your site.
3. Optimized Anchor Text - it is imperative that the text in
your link is optimized for your web page, as well as being
curiosity arousing.
4. Text Link Placement - wherever possible determine the
placement of your link - you are paying for it. Links within
body text (usually in your own distributed content) are the most
effective. The rule of thumb is that the higher up the page the
link is placed, the better its click-thru-rate (CTR).
5. Quantity of links on page - in a link trade set up, the
hosting site usually guarantees the number of outgoing links -
3-5, and never more than 10. The fewer links there are, the
better your CTR. Too many (6+) will erode the link PR you
acquire as well as create distractions to your link.
6. Design - again you may not have control over the design of
the text link ad, but it is worth checking to see whether you
have any options. A simple link will generally maximize your
CTR. Dynamic urls are not spidered by the SE bots, so any ad
tracking scripts will do nothing for your link popularity, only
boosting traffic your site.
How to Buy Links
Many sites readily link sell space on their pages. Due to the
fear of SE blacklisting, some sites are reluctant to openly
advertise the fact that they will sell you link space, and with
these, it is often best to approach 3rd party link brokers. This
will generally not cost you more as the linking sites' pays the
brokers' fees, but it will give you more options to choose from.
The leading link brokers are Text Link Brokers and Text Link
Ads. The caveats for quality linking still apply, and don't
plunge in if you are not sure.
It is usual for linking sites to charge a monthly fee for each
link with the possibility of
getting site wide links or links on
specific pages. However site wide links tend to be more
expensive and may not achieve any higher PR than single page
links although they may generate more traffic. Typical charges
would range from $15/month for PR3's to +$400/month for PR7's
with wide variation in between. I do not think there is anything
to be gained in linking with pages with less than PR5,
principally because the PR they would pass on would be minimal.
Hosted Marketing Pages
A variation on the theme coming into fashion is Hosted Marketing
Pages also known as Content Hosting or Pre-sell Pages. In this
method you arrange with the site that you want a link from, to
have a highly optimized, timely and relevant article that you
provide, hosted on that site for a fee. You of course will have
embedded all the relevant links in appropriate content that you
control. Its main advantage is to allow you to advertise more
links than a straight link trade, and with links that rate more
highly in SE algorithms for relevance. On the other hand you
lose out on PR because the article would most likely be on a
brand new page, and anyway you don't want your material
competing with other similar editorials. Hosted marketing pages
will I believe replace reciprocal linking as the leading SEO
technique, especially to establish new sites.
HMP's are one way of paying to syndicate articles relevant to
your web site or page. Paid article syndication is not a new SEO
method, but as part of a link trading strategy, it takes on a
new dimension. Like with HMP's you would distribute optimized
articles, in order to acquire inbound links to your site. One
can either issue press releases through agencies like PR Web, or
have article directories do so. Either way you would pay for
prioritization and for wider reach. Just as with HMP's apart
from the exposure your site gets, you retain control of your
links' anchor text. According to research conducted by the
Marketing Experiments Journal, paid press release distribution
has for traffic generation purposes, a better ROI than
traditional PPC, with an added SEO benefit.
(http://www.marketingexperiments.com/see/1122).
Link Trading or Link Renting differs from straight advertising
in having an SEO focus that in the longer term obtains more
valuable organic traffic from high SE rankings than the direct
traffic generated by PPC or any other type of advertising. The
latter is only effective for as long as you are shelling out
money to fund it, and most advertising experiences diminishing
returns, whereas an SEO technique like link trading gains
momentum from its viral effect such that in time you can curtail
the amount of link renting you are doing with only a marginal
effect on your SE visibility.
It is debateable whether Link Renting amounts to SERP
manipulation. By the reckoning of some, all SEO is just that -
Search Engine manipulation. However even the SE's are aware that
SEO hones their own search results by forcing webmasters to
focus more acutely the type of traffic their sites attract,
based on existing search queries and extrapolating for future
ones. In a hypothetical world, if all web pages were adequately
optimized, even the most incomprehensible search query terms
would return relevant and usable results. This is surely the
holy grail of Search.
You need to decide before you start researching sites to buy
links from just why you want to trade - for traffic or PR. Some
research suggests that PPC has better and more controllable
returns than Link Renting for traffic conversion (traffic that
buys or takes some other specific action). If your aim is to
boost your own site's PR, be careful about how much you pay.
Tony Simpson of Webpageaddons has written an informatively about
this in a two part article. He concludes that you are much safer
bidding for link space on the basis of traffic generation than
PR. Either way, buying links, if properly executed, enhances the
prospects for a new site, and is set to become part of the
internet marketing mix for most webmasters.
Happy Link Trading
About the author:
Al Bert, a New Yorker, is an infopreneur, with a focus on links
exchange as a traffic generation and web marketing strategy.
Visit his site for a review of the latest Link Exchange Management
Software
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