LINK EXCHANGE

Getting your website to rank near the top of the search engine listings is more of an art than a science. The major search engines never publish their actual algorithms for determining how they rank the millions of pages on the internet, leaving web site owners to try to determine these rules on their own.

However, one thing is absolutely clear; a major component to rank high on search engines is your website's number of incoming links. Search engines place a high level of importance on the number of inbound links directed to a website; and if they come from a relevant, or related website, they count for even more.

There are a variety of options available to website owners in order to build these links. Many look for relevant sites manually, sending an email with a proposal to exchange links. The problem with this approach is that it is very time consuming and not very productive. Most emails of this type are ignored by website owners; if they do respond and post a link to your website, there's no easy way to verify that it's still there a month later.

The services in our review offer an automated way to generate links into your website. Some are reciprocal; some are one-way (which is the best kind of link); some even give you an opportunity to earn money back. And there's no reason why you can't use more than one of these strategies to help increase your website's ranking.

There are a number of features to consider when looking for a Link Exchange program. Some of these include:

•  Link Partners.  How many potential link partners does the service offer? the more inbound links you receive, the better your search engine rating will score.

•  Cost.  Is the pricing reasonable for the services that are offered?

•  Fee Structure.  Are you tied into a long-term contract? Or can you stop the service at any time if you're not satisfied with the results?

We hope you find this information valuable in selecting the right Link Exchange programs for you!

 

 

LINKSMASTER

 

 

Cost:	$6.95/month
Link Partners:	4,000+

 

Index Guy is a link management service that offers two methods for you to increase links to your website. First, they offer a free program of reciprocal link exchange. Even better, however, is their program of one-way links from their partner directory - for an exceptionally reasonable price.

The reciprocal link exchange program is similar to the one offered by top-ranked LinksMaster. After registration you select a category for your site to be listed under, with a description and up to 4 different link titles. You can insert their code snippet in one of four website environments; PHP, ASP, CFM, or Perl. Once inserted, you are instantly sharing links with thousands of other sites in the IndexGuy network. IndexGuy allows you to exchange links with their partners completely free of charge.

Even better than their reciprocal link exchange program, however, is their one-way linking service. For a very low fee - starting at $6.95 per month - IndexGuy allows you to receive one-way links from their partner sites. With this option, there is not code to install whatsoever on your website.

One-way links are considered much more valuable by the search engines than reciprocal links. This means you receive a much greater benefit and rise in the search engine listings than with shared or reciprocal links.

IndexGuy offers three versions of their one-way linking service:

•  Bronze Package - $6.95/month brings you a host of one-way links pointing directly to your website, with no coding required.

•  Silver Package - At $24.95/month, this package posts your link into their member website's sponsorship windows, giving you higher placement within their search directories.

•  Gold Package - The premium service. $99.95/month gives your link prominent display on their member's directory starting pages, highlighted in Bold and guaranteed one-link access from their website homepage.

With two programs offered - a no-cost reciprocal link exchange and a low-cost one-way link service - IndexGuy brings a unique and very affordable solution to the link building challenge.

 

 

 

Text Link Ads is a clearinghouse for exchanging links. For a monthly fee, you can buy a spot on a website and place your link. The price for this varies based on the popularity of the website. You can also rent a spot on your website for others to place their link.

Text Link Ads offers two ways for you to find potential websites to place your link.

•  First, you can browse by the category of websites. They have over 100 categories available to choose from, so finding appropriate websites is fairly easy. Once you find a suitable category, you can browse through the individual websites to see a) how popular they are (measured by Alexa Traffic Rank - the lower the number, the better), and the cost per month to have your ad placed on their site.

•  Second, you can request a free custom proposal. You simply enter your website page, keywords, and a monthly budget, and Text Link Ads will find excellent matches that will drive both traffic and links to your website. This is a free and very useful feature.

In addition to buying links to increase traffic and search engine rankings, Text Link Ads offers you the opportunity to make money by selling space on your website. This feature is unique to the programs in our review. To take advantage of this service, you simply submit your site for approval. Once accepted, you receive a snippet of code that you place on your website. They currently support a range of platforms such as PHP, ASP, Perl, and Cold Fusion, among others. You have the option to accept or deny any ads before their placed on your website, and Text Link Ads handles all sales, invoicing, and customer service issues. You just sit back and collect your checks. This service even works on nearly all forum and blog software packages.

Text Link Ads brings a unique and powerful option to the link exchange arena. We like the idea of targeted links placed on websites that will generate traffic as well as provide benefit in the search engine rankings. And the option to make money by selling website space makes this Text Link Ads that much sweeter.

 

 

 

Links4Trade is a reciprocal link management system where you choose the websites you want to trade links with. With over 18,000 link partners, they boast a very large link exchange network.

After registration, you first enter the text link information about your site. You complete the description, link information, and anchor text title. Unfortunately, Links4Trade only allows one title per text link, instead of 4 or 5 like some other link building sites.

Next, you take the source code they provide and create a links page with it. This process simply involves cutting and pasting the code snippet they provide onto a new web page, which you then link to from your website.

Now you're ready to start exchanging links. However, this is one area where Links4Trade differs from the other sites in our review. Rather than selecting your category and automatically enjoying relevant links from hundreds or thousands of webpages, you must instead send a request through their service to each specific website you want to exchange with. Once the other website receives, reviews, and accepts your request, you automatically start sharing reciprocal links. Granted, Links4Trade has made this process very slick, but it is still a manual one-link-at-a-time effort.

Pricing is another area where Links4Trade seems to complicate matters. For starters, they have a $39.95 one-time setup fee. Next, your base monthly recurring fee is $7.95. Fair enough - but then you also pay a fee of 10 cents per exchange partner, for up to 400 partners. So, if you were to exchange links with 400+ websites your first active month, your fee would be $39.95+$7.95+$40 = $87.90, with a monthly recurring charge of $47.95. That makes for one of the priciest link building services in our review. On the positive side, there are no contracts to sign so you can quit at any time (although you'll still be out your $39.95 signup fee).

Links4Trade offers you reciprocal linking opportunities with thousands of websites, which should definitely improve your search engine listings. However their process is more manual than the others in our review, and the pricing can be on the high side.

 

 

 

One Way Link Exchange allows you to select the websites that you want to receive links from. However, with only 900+ links and a pricey fee structure, there are better options available.

One Way Link Exchange provides a means by which you can receive one-way links from the link partners in their network. After registration, you enter information about your website and the type of text link you want to appear on partner web pages. Up to 5 link titles are allowed per ad. Then you click on the Add Links section and select your appropriate category. You are then presented with a list of websites from which you can start receiving links. Select the ones that interest you and within minutes you'll be automatically to their links page directories.

Since these are one-way links only, there is no code to modify on your website; you simply select your in-network partners and your link will automatically start appearing on their webpage. They also offer a demo of their service so you can get a feel for the setup process.

One Way offers discounted pricing based on the number of websites you want linking in to you. They also provide reduce costs based on the length of time you want your ads to display within their network. For 100 links, paid monthly, the cost is a very reasonable $10/month. For 250 links the price increases to $20/month; for 500 links the cost is $35/month, and for 1,000 links the price jumps to $50/month. Contracts are offered by month, buy quarter, by half-year, or annually.

One Way Link Exchange gives you the ability to enable hundreds of one-way links to your website. However, with a limited partner network and somewhat pricey contracts, you'll pay a premium for those links.