Trading Links

There are many different reasons and ways that trading links increases traffic to your site so it just made sense to cover it. First of all, each link that is pointing to your site opens a new gateway for people to find you as they surf the web. That is why so many affiliates seek to do it in the first place.
Secondly, trading links gives you better chances of getting listed in paid submission search engines for free. THAT’S RIGHT FOR FREE! When you are ranking your site, the search engines do link analysis as part of their algorithms. Your search engine rankings and link analysis score steadily increases as proportionally as the number of relevant quality links back to your site increases.
How Search Engines Evaluate Links:
In order to be able to figure out how search engine evaluate your links, you have to ask yourself these key questions first:
! How many sites do you have linking to your site right now?
! What is the "Page Rank" of the site that links to yours?
! Are the links reciprocal or one way?
! Does your site [or the site that links to you] have links that are relevant to the content in the site?
! Are these valuable links or is this link a part of a "Link Farm"?
Just for the record Reciprocal Links are the easiest to obtain and will aid in gaining better placement on the search engines, but they are not as valuable as One Way Links because you have to look for a link on their Home page to their Links page. The most common name to find it under is usually called "Links", but "Resources" is also quite popular.
If you cannot find this link or if they don’t have a link that is easily found, you may want to skip them all together. If you can’t find their reciprocal links, chances are no one else, including the search engines, will find them either, so you don’t have to panic about it.
You will want to be sure that their reciprocal links exist in the same domain as their site. There is no point to having a link to your site on a site other than the one in which you want to exchange links with. Why would you? You have to check and see how they have their reciprocal links configured. To do that, ask yourself these questions: Are there categories? Are the listings in alphabetical order within the categories? Is it just a free-for-all (another term for "link farm") or are the other links somewhat relevant? You want your link to be in a relevant category that can easily be found.
Explore their content
It wouldn’t make any sense to share or trade links with another site without knowing first what their site has in it. Is there anything that your average visitor would find objectionable? Is their site in working order? After all, you will be placing a link on your site to this site and it will reflect you too.
Place the other website’s link on your site first & test the response
If the site that you are thinking of linking has passed your inspection, as a show of good faith, you can place a link to your potential partner’s website on your site first. During your visit, you should have found some sort of information regarding their site’s title and description as well as the category or theme that they would prefer. If this is not clear, you should be able to write a little something for them. Remember it should be a theme that matches your own.
Properly contact the other website merchant
While you are visiting the website, you should have discovered how they want to be contacted for a link exchange. If they have a form to fill out, be sure that you use it. Read and follow their directions properly. Typically, they will then ask you for a link to their site first. If you have been following my tips, you have already done that. Do not tell them you have placed a link to their website before you actually do. Many of these people are quick to look and see. If it’s not there, your request may be ignored or at least will take a lot longer.
E-mailing your request
When you are looking to request a link trade, you should see if there are specific ways to go about it by email. If they don’t have a form, look for a specific e-mail address they want used for such inquiries. No matter who you e-mail, be brief and to the point. If they have already included a subject line in their e-mail link, don’t change it. If they haven’t, simply have it say, "Link exchange" or "Link request." A subject line that isn’t clear is bound to be deleted as spam without being read. You must also make sure that you don’t use attachments unless specifically asked to do so. In your e-mail introduce yourself and the website you represent. Include the full URL:
http://www.anynameyouwant.com
This will make it easier for the webmaster to copy-and-paste your linking information if it is approved. You must also let the other party know that you have visited their site. A good way to do this is to complement them on something unique to their website that would require a bit of surfing to see.