Finding Link Exchange Partner Sites To Improve Your Link Popularity

Link popularity is considered by most search engines to be one of, if not, the most important factor that determines a site’s ranking in the search engines.

Let’s say we have two identical sites. One has thousands of targeted sites linking to it. The other only has a few incoming links. It’s virtually guaranteed that the site with thousands of incoming links will rank higher than the other site.

So how do you find reciprocal link partners?

First, you need to work out what type of web sites would link to your site. Here are some examples of sites and the types of sites that would link to them.

	Your Site:		Links From:
	Pet store		Pet lovers’ sites
	Web design service		Webmaster sites, how to sites
	Travel site		Local guides, local tourism
	PC store		Software/hardware review sites
	Music store		Music fan sites

So how do you find these sites?

In the following examples, we’ll use “pet lovers'” sites as the type of sites we’re looking for.

1. Find targeted sites in the web directories, such as Yahoo.com or Dmoz.org.

Go to a directory’s home page and search with the keywords, “pet lover.” Then click on the category the top listings belong to. The sites listed in these and related categories are the types of sites you need to contact.

If the category has a resources or directories sub-category, then try the sites in those categories first. Resources typically offer links to sites on the same subject.

2. Use search engines to find sites that link to your competitors’ web sites.

Using the search engines is probably a more efficient method of find reciprocal link partners, than searching the directories.

Now make a list of the sites. Then create a links or resources page and carefully craft your pitch to solicit your link to be included on each one of those sites.

Some sites, such as web directories, will not require a reciprocal link. So simply submit your link.

Only exchange links with targeted sites. Linking to poor-quality or spam sites may affect and typically will affect your search engine rankings.