WordPress Site Tip: Not All Links are Created Equal
The best scenario is to have tons of inbound one-way links to your site. Those type of links show that you have something that another site found of value to link to you without having to agree to exchange links.
Exchanging links is a good thing, but only if it makes sense for both sites and more importantly — site visitors. Certainly competitors won’t want to exchange links. Nor would those who have a gift basket site want to link to an industrial components site. And one could say that those who land at either site are not interested either. Two different markets there.
Many think link exchanges are the end-all-be all to getting high search engine rankings. Not the case. What is becoming increasingly apparent is that site owners are chasing links to the exclusion of all else. Links are just one part of the find-ability puzzle — not the end-all-be-all. Link exchanges for the sake of doing so pretty much cancel each other out and have no effect.
You need to make sure that you are linking to a credible site that is of a quality that earns your recommendation. See, when linking to a site you are basically giving a recommendation to your site visitors about the site you are linking to. And that site should in some way apply to your niche and your market’s interests. Forget about linking to your best friend’s poorly developed site. This is business and you are judged by the company — and the links — that you keep.
Be very leery of linking circles, link farms and pretty much anything that makes it sound like getting a bunch-o-links very quickly is a good thing. It isn’t. When sites participate in such programs including buying links, those links are ignored or in some cases penalized. The search engines are wise to most practices of artificially gaining links specifically to affect search engine rankings and they are getting better at not giving high rankings to sites that use them.
So we’re back to square one, right? Create a valuable content rich site worth linking to and the links will happen. No way around the hard work here! I have an article about the Reality of Linking, why not check it out?
At your service,
Judith
Your WordPress Consultant
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