Website Owners, Are You Thinking About Using a Link Exchange Program? - Think Again

Link exchange programs are a popular solution for website owners looking to boost their link popularity and build links to their website while using a predetermined, keyword focused anchor text. However, are link exchange programs really a safe solution for your websites search engine optimization (SEO) needs?

Link exchange programs have been around for years, and their services are still being used by a multitude of website operators to this day. It's unfortunate that some of these link exchange programs actually hurt a website owners' search engine rankings; while the ultimate price being a complete "de-indexing" of a website from a particular search engine, such as Google, is not widely talked about; the effects of improper linking can harm to your websites search engine status whether you are aware of it or not.

You see, the most effective link building occurs naturally; and even "unnatural" links can be made to look natural with a little bit of effort and research. While many link exchange programs try to replicate natural link placement, the bottom line is that these programs can't. In addition to their inability to replicate a true natural link; you, as the website owner, often do not have control over who you link to. This fact in itself should raise a red flag for a website owner who has any knowledge of SEO. It's not which websites that are linking to yours that can hurt you; it's the websites that you decide to link to that can cause long term damage to your own websites status with search engines.

While many link exchange programs take steps to assure that quality websites are only used in their programs, and some even try to create "tight" categories so that the websites used in the link exchange are closely related; the bottom line is that some "bad" websites will fall through the cracks and some website owners will choose improper categories for their websites. In addition to that, it's not guaranteed that just because a website has good standings with search engines today, that those good standings will continue indefinitely. Using a link exchange really is a gamble. You might end up with positive results from the venture, but risking the status of your website in search engines is not worth any benefit that a link exchange could possibly bring.

If you care about the long term success of your website, stick to ethical and proven search engine optimization methods. While a link exchange program might seem like a shortcut to increase your search engine rankings; the consequences for linking to a bad website simply aren't worth the risk.