Stop asking me to swap links – it’s bad for business
August 27, 2008 by ShannonCherry
Filed under Business
It seems just about every day lately, someone is emailing me to request a link swap.
And I have to say to all of you: STOP!
I understand why you think swapping links will help you in your quest to be number one on the search engines. (It doesn’t… just read Rebecca Murtagh’s info on what makes Google’s search engine tick.)
When link swaps started, websites exchanged links with other websites that were complimentary to provide a useful resource for their own visitors. Nowadays, many webmasters will swap links with any site that will agree, or any automated link swap page. These reciprocal links are easily detected by the search algorithms and discounted as such. Trading links doesn’t show the same vote for the quality of your site as a link that isn’t reciprocated.
Then there’s another question: But folks, what’s in it for me? You get featured on a highly-ranked blog and Startup Spark gets… what? If you really want me to consider linking -or better yet – writing about you: you need to earn it.
And that takes savvy PR – not page rank – but public relations.
I got to say I agree with you. A few years back I tried the whole link exchange thing, and it wasn’t long before I realized it was a complete waste of my time. Now if someone wants to add a link to one of my sites on their site, it’s fine by me, but unless their site is one that I do a lot of reading myself, I no longer link back to them; I only link back to sites I know and read myself now.
Thanks for your insight. I have just read Rebecca’s article too.
I’m pretty new to all this SEO stuff, but IMHO I still think reciprocal links are a good thing, as long as the links are good and relevant. I would not want to link to a site without checking it out first. If I was happy with the content and felt it was relevant and useful to my target audience, I would consider a reciprocal link.
I would rely on my link actually being used and for new readers to visit my blog/website. If I achieved some new subscribers and sales, it would be worthwhile.
I think the problem is that some people are just concerned with the link being there to improve their SEO, rather than attracting new visitors to their site, who are likely to be returning customers.
I also appreciate that a high-ranking site will reep no benefit from swapping links with a low-ranking newbie (unless, of course, the newbie becomes very succesful!)
I will continue to be open-minded about reciprocal links, whilst not relying on them for traffic.
Shannon, I agree wholeheartedly with you on this topic… I’m sure I don’t get a fraction of the requests you receive, but to me it screams of desperation and unprofessionalism.
I’ve noticed some try to make their message appear personalized (”I visited your blog [link inserted here] and read you post [title inserted here].”) to try and make me think the message was sent especially to and only me… However, after reading a few sentences, it’s painfully clear they didn’t take the time to “research” my business and what I stand for.
I treat those messages like spam. Call me extreme, as I’m sure many of these people/companies are well meaning and offer awesome products/services, but, as you say here, you’ll have to earn it.
I don’t ask for reciprocal links (I want people to link to me because they love my stuff). That’s how I add links on my blog and that’s how I’ll continue doing so. Spontaneous linking to my site doesn’t automatically qualify you. I don’t usually ask for favors, so don’t ask me. Again, they’ve gotta earn it.
Thanks for speaking so candidly about and putting words to a growing trend in email solicitation (again, I label it spam) that personally bugs the heck out of me.
While we’re on the subject, I’ve added Startup Spark to my blogroll!!
Do you want to swap links? LOL