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You Are Being Lied To About Reciprocal Links!
by Vishal P. Rao ©Copyright 2004

Exchanging links has been an important part of generating 
traffic since the concept of Internet marketing was first
established, but at least 90% of people looking to trade
links don't understand the real benefits and, therefore,
fail to make the most of them.

The vast majority of web site owners think that exchanging links 
is only helpful because it can boost their rankings in search 
engines such as Google.com. They are useful for this purpose 
because the number of links back to a site is factored into 
ranking calculations. But, according to WebSideStory's StatMarket 
Web site optimization service, search engines account for only 
little more than 13% of an average web site's traffic.

The most important benefit of a link exchange is the traffic 
resulting directly from these links. That same StatMarket 
research found that 21% of site visitors get there via links 
which means the links themselves are more useful than the search 
engine listings!

Search engines can be unpredictable. Their algorithms change on 
an ongoing basis. Your site can be in the top 10 results today, 
but may not be tomorrow.

I'm not saying you should neglect the search engines. However, 
your main concern should be getting traffic from direct links. 
Search engine ranking should be your secondary concern.

Furthermore, your links page can serve as an excellent resource 
for your visitors. As any Internet marketer will tell you, it's 
the content that makes a successful site. When you provide useful 
links for your visitors, your site becomes more credible, more 
helpful, and more likely to be bookmarked for future visits - all 
of which adds up to a steady stream of traffic.

So how do you identify sites that can send you more direct 
traffic? Here are some pointers to consider while exchanging 
links:

1) Look for sites that have good content. 

Content is the #1 reason people go online. If a site has good 
content, it will receive a greater number of repeat visitors.

2) Look for sites that display a prominent link to their links 
   page on the home page as well as on secondary pages.

When I say prominent, I don't mean a link with H1 font size! 
What I mean is that the link should not be less prominent than 
the links on rest of the site.

Many webmasters, particularly those who only want links to 
improve their search engine ranking, will hide their links page 
or only place it on their home page, somewhere at the bottom 
with a -1 font size. The most common reason for doing this is 
a fear of losing visitors, but that fear is absolutely unfounded 
when you really understand how the Internet works.

Say your web site has a 1% conversion ratio. That means for 
every 100 visitors that visit your site, you make one sale. 
Now what about the remaining 99 visitors? They are probably 
looking for something else. So what do they do? They have 3 
possible options: 

a) Go back to the previous site they visited.

b) Visit your links page (if you have one), hoping 
   to find the information they are looking for there.

c) End their browsing session.

So which do you think is the best option? I would definitely 
want my visitors to go to my links page and visit my link 
partners rather than go back. Why? Because I know that my link 
partners will send a percentage of their visitors back to my
site, thus offsetting any visitor loss.

A visitor exchange of this kind works best when all link partners 
have a prominent link to their links page on all the pages of 
their web sites. Visitors are then much more likely to move 
between the linked sites.

-----Side Bar-----
Some webmasters design their links page for link partners rather 
than for their visitors! 

They use linking text like: "Let's Trade Links", "Trade Links" 
and so on... These webmasters are usually more interested in 
finding link partners than in providing information to their 
visitors. The end result is link partners visiting each other's 
sites.
-----Side Bar-----

3) Look for sites that have tightly themed and categorized links 
   pages.

Sites that trade links solely for search engine rankings have 
random collections of links to hundreds of sites with almost 
every imaginable theme. These links pages are never going to be 
visited by people looking for additional information. On the 
other hand, sites that have their links categorized are more 
user friendly and are more likely to attract visitors.

Conclusion

It is essential to keep your visitors' interests in mind when 
designing your links page. Looking for, and adding, quality 
links, without this goal in mind is pointless. You need to start 
thinking of your links page as a service to your visitors rather 
than just a means to achieving a higher search engine ranking. 
Only with this perspective will you be able to make the most of 
your reciprocal links.

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Vishal P. Rao is the editor of Home Based Business Opportunities 
- a web site dedicated to opportunities, ideas and resources to 
help you start and run a home based business. Visit his site at:
http://www.home-based-business-opportunities.com
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