Link Exchange (obtaining links on other sites in lieu of their links on your own website) to increase the PR of your site on the search engines is one of the time tested techniques, which has withstood the onslaught of time. Although its value has fallen a bit as compared to what it was in the nascent years of SEO, it is still one of the best methods to improve the search engine rankings, and jack up the PR (page rank).
Link Exchange or Link Building methods are mainly centered around quality and relevancy. The sites with which the links are being swapped, should be the established ones, with a high PR and good incoming links. They should be in the same niche as your own site. For example, if your site is insurance related, then you should aim to exchange links with motor insurance, personal insurance or financial websites.
Observe the following steps to build up an effective Link Exchange Campaign:
Do a Diligent Research for Right Keywords: The selection of the right keywords, which can help the web surfers find your site is very important. To accomplish this, you may start with a generalized list of keywords which are related to your site, and expand the same with the keywords related to the same category. If you have an insurance site, the most relevant keywords for you could be motor insurance, auto insurance, personal insurance, general insurance, finance, personal finance, financial websites etc. You may take the help of keyword research tools, to help you build up an exhaustive list of keywords.
Searching for prospective Link Partners: The best way to look for good related link partners, is to conduct a "search" on major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN etc using different keywords. Don't focus on just the first page, because the sites already appearing on the first few pages, may not be interested in exchanging links with you. You will get the best results from the sites appearing on the deeper pages
Selection of the best Link Partners: After compiling a list of sites related to yours, you should weed out the useless ones, and concentrate on the good ones. Incoming links from .gov or .edu websites are better than getting links from the sites which host free of cost. Do not concentrate on just the PR of the prospective link partners, although it is also one of the chief factors affecting the rankings of your website. Also never link to the dubious sites
and link farms.
Setting up the Link Swap Requests: Before sending out the requests for links to the prospective link partners, it is advisable, if you set up an exclusive Links Page or a Links Directory. And don't forget to mention the exact url where you would be adding their links, while corresponding with them. Likewise don't forget to mention your
own anchor text, the url to which the anchor text should point to, and the short description of your website, preferably not more than 250 characters.
Effective management of the Link Exchange Campaign: Once you have got your link in place on the other site, it is very necessary to ensure that the link does not get deleted, and remains in place with the right anchor text and the accompanying description. There are several softwares on the internet, some of them absolutely free, with which you can effectively manage the incoming links to your site. One such tool which I have been using for over three years is the "Web CEO". It is a very compact tool for doing the Keyword Research,Finding Prospective Link Partners, Managing Correspondence, Monitoring the Incoming Links and lots of other features.
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