If you had been out on the web with a website or blog for quite some time you would have either asked someone else to link to you, or someone would have asked you to link to them. In my earlier days I have asked many to link to me hoping to see the peaks in traffic or a Google Pagerank.
Asking someone is not a bad idea, only a crying baby gets milk. Even God, who knows all our needs doesn’t deliver any of them until we ask. “Ask and thou shall receive”. But the bitter side is that a link in the form of a link exchange won’t bring you any traffic. Oh, if you can call the one click you get in a month as traffic, well then I am wrong 😛
On the flip side, a link from a top performing blog could bring you traffic, but they wouldn’t give you links if you ask them. Bloggers usually monetize such links as sponsored links and earn money by sharing a bit of their traffic. But if you can’t afford to buy a link there, don’t waste your time nagging for a backlink. I will tell you why…
This is why I hate Link Exchanges a LOT…
- Google hates link exchanges meant for improving Page Rank. It’s clearly explained here.
- Usually sites that agree to give you a backlink are those sites with zero or close to zero traffic and similar page ranks. A link from them will not bring you any traffic and Google might consider it as a link from a bad neighborhood which could end up in a zero Page Rank for your blog.
- Your link will be added to a list of many other links. People don’t usually follow such lists which could be 20 or 30 links or even more. So the chance of getting traffic from them is further reduced.
- Even normal web surfers these days know about SEO and SERP. They can immediately say the quality of the links on a link farm. You don’t want to show yourself in a nasty place, do you? Who knows you might be the next A-list topper, you will regret for the backlinks then.
- A quality backlink is much better than a useless backlink.
That doesn’t mean I hate linking out, instead, I love linking out and spreading the word. There is even a category and tag entitled Link Love. Here are some ways to get a quality backlink from me and other bloggers.
Getting that Quality Backlink
Write a Guest post
This is the best way to get a high quality Dofollow backlink. Most blogs entertain guest posts which are relevant to their niche. They would even allow you to link to specific posts too. If you like to write one here, you are most welcome. Read the Guest Blogging guidelines before you send me one. The biggest advantage of a guest post is that the backlink stays for ever.
Be a Top Commentator
Many blogs have the top commentator list which honors the top commentators with Dofollow links. I have one too. Get active on those sites and take away the backlink. Some blogs even have Dofollow comments links too; leaving a comment there can get you a backlink.
Participate
Bloggers are constantly in search of new and latest information. If you have some information that he can use, send it right away. If the information makes into an article, you will get a Thank you link. Again the link is a lifetime backlink!
Write awesome articles
If you have unique, mind-blowing content, others will definitely link to you. Many bloggers including A-list toppers often link to articles even from newbie bloggers, that too via dedicated posts. A link to a specific post is gonna get more traffic that a link to your homepage.
Show Link Love
You love it when someone links to you. Right? Everyone loves that. Link to fellow bloggers when you stumble over cool articles and you might end up in a link to one of your best posts too. No guarantees though.
A backlink is not a big thing, if you have good content, people will definitely link to your posts. Once again, the Golden rule “Content is the King” holds well. Go ahead and start writing awesome content, the rest will follow!
And oh, don’t be a miser, link out to relevant articles and show community love 🙂
I am a WordPress product developer and creator of Image Attributes Pro. I am passionate about solving problems and travelling the world.
Nice article!
What i think is exchanging links would not benefit you more than getting a backlink. The most important factor which needs to be kept in mind is quality of links instead of quantity.The more good PR link you can get the more good it for your website. This is a long term work and you need to effortly do that without giving up. The more you make effort the more advantage your website gets. Backlinks can also made through submitting information in Wikipedia, social networking, social bookmarking and forum posting.
🙂
Yeah, those are some ways to get backlinks. Thanks for sharing.
I was focussing on ‘How to get backlink from another blog’ so I left those away.
Its always quality that matter.. 🙂
Keep Rocking!
Hi Arun,
This is an interesting article. Thank you for sharing. Even though I never really understood the concept of link exchange. I believe that you do not have to work on backlinks if you are trying to attract a specific audience. Just by posting some good stuff and excellent services, one should get is the right type of visitors they want.
Cheers,
Eddie Gear
Well, In my opinion backlinks are important to get traffic esp from websites. The main reason why your pages that hit Google homepage goes down later is the lack of backlinks to them. But dont try to involve in Link exhanges, I dont recommend that, instead submit pages to social media…
Cheers…
I think of all of this link thing as a hype. PR is not going to get you traffic. Get mentioned by bloggers who already have traffic. T
I agree. We have a very good example with us, The Anand is a PR 0 blog with over 80k monthly visits. Thats awesome count, Kudos to him. But many still beliieve that they are going to hit traffic peaks if they have a PR 4 or so. Holy crap!
Cheers 🙂
Yes. Thats a well described article. Very good work. I have stopped the link Exchanges Now which i had done before and now i understood a lot. Thanks
Thats nothing to worry about, everyone does link exchanges at start. me too 😛
Cheers…
Yeah Arun well said,bloggers must show community love to have mutual growth.
@Kenney:- Google PR’s ability to bring sustained traffic is still debatable,but one must accept the fact that at end of the day every one running behind it.
PR might bring you a bit higher on your SERP, but I dont believe that there is much it can do to bring traffic. I have known people with PR0 blog and still having tons of traffic 🙂 As you said its debatable..
I like you point about showing link love. I really like the idea as it will generate a lot more visitors and it will also help you a lot in getting better presence over the Internet world.
You get it. Spread love and you will be loved… 🙂
Cheers…
Link exchanges may be labor intensive to some, but there is no denying the fact that this link exchange can help in building the backlinks of the website.
Yeah, link exchanges do increase backlinks and your technorati authority, but I just dont like it 🙂 Its purely unethical unless its a blogroll or a list of your favorite places on web. Thats my humble thought 🙂
Cheers…
Nice thought, but its too hard to comment on lot of blogs daily. any way thanks for this post
You dont have to comment on too many blogs, break it down: shortlist 4 or 5 of them, leave one comment each, say each comment takes 3 minutes including the time taken to read the post, thats just 15 minutes a day, or say 20 minutes. 🙂
Nice article! I hate it when people beg for link exchanges. Recently I edited my blog a do-follow blog so now everyone wants to comment and also spam to get a backlink .. 😉
Yeah, making the comments do-follow invites a lot of spam, thats why I dont have it here. Instead I have the Top Commentator widget to thank them, and it never resets!
Arun,
Very nice explanation. Thanks for the information.
I have also stopped doing 2 way link exchanges. Doesn’t help a lot.
Good decision, Link exchanges never helped me too. Still many newbies think that Link exchange is a great way to bring traffic. Shame on them.
We are saved 🙂
Thanks, good article! Maybe someone needs backlinkchecker? Try …link….
thanks!You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog.It will greatly help me in my SEO activities.
Thanks though, i’m glad some people share good stuff like this! It will greatly help me in my SEO activities.
Excellent post, I will be sure to save this in my Diigo account. Have a awesome evening.