I have done a lot of research on this subject. I have tried for years to just get one site I build visible to people searching in the Google index. When I studied Search Engine Optimization back at the start of the internet, the key was apparently Meta Tags. I started by slamming my pages with meta tags. Making sure my code was just a step better than the competition. I looked at sites ranking toward the top and I was astounded at what I found their keywords to be. Reputable businesses had meta keywords like Free XXX, Nudity, etc. Why? Because it that day these were big search terms, even though not related to their business, they wanted to pull any free traffic they good. One specific one selling contact lenses had stuffed their keywords with all kinds of crazy things. But they were ranking number 1. As you can imagine, I duplicated everything I could in their code I waited months, and I was never ranked anywhere.
My next feeling was that it must have been the size of the site that had to do with the ranking. I had a problem though in that I would not be able to build large sites because there really wasn't much content on a subject. Every number one site seemed to have a ton of indexed pages. Then I cam across Traffic Booster Pro. This is a program that takes RSS feeds, randomized them and creates a ton of highly optimized pages. Within days I saw results. I was ranked number 60 for a very competitive keyword. I was so excited, I had finally figured it out. Google crawled several times a day. I had the bigger site. This program built all those pages I needed, and redirected each user to my homepage. I got a major increase in traffic for a period of time, but one day because Google crawled so much it crashed my entire data center. Then I noticed my rankings fell completely off Google. I figured once the data center was fixed and I slowed Google's crawl rate on my site my rankings would return. Big mistake, Google had penalized my site. My site doesn't even rank number 1 for the made up keyword in my domain now, all because of this program.
I then went on to exchange links. I bought programs like SEO elite, which I do recommend for anybody to use, but not for this purpose. More on that program later. I also joined Linkmarket.net. I exchanged links like wild fire, making sure that my anchor text changed, following all the Guru's advice. They claimed this is how they got their rankings. Bull, exchanging links is absolutely worthless. After doing this for a month, I went to see if the Guru's were still offering link exchanges on their sites, if they had partner directories. Yeah right, there was no directories. They had already realized this was an ineffective strategy. Now links do help, search on Google for click here. Adobe ranks #1 and they don't even have click here text on the page.
So to answer the question, no link exchanging does nothing for SEO. The two ways to get your sites link that are not exchanges you can share information or make link bait. The article that you are reading right now helps my rankings. I just write experiences and information that I have retained in knowledge, the distribute it to webmasters to update content on their site. This helps the webmasters by making Google visit their site often since they are constantly adding content. Best part is when they like and add my content they add a link to my site. I write articles several times a day about different things that relate to my website. This is how I get links to my site, without exchanging them. I exchange information of a one-way text link.
There really are two ways like I said. Link bait, and content sharing. Link bait is like the chicken website for Burger King if you can remember that. If you saw it you would remember it was a guy in a chicken suit on video that did stupid things. It ranked Burger King number one for the single word chicken. That is quite a jump. It was people liked it an virally linked to it from their sites. The drawback to link bait is you better be extremely creative, or have someone build link bait for an astronomical price. There is a better way.
Content sharing is exactly what you are looking at. I published this informational article for webmasters to add to their site. If people like it several website will publish it. A SEO site trying to provide free advice my put this article online. This helps them because if they constantly add content Google will spider frequently. This can help them if they make a change to their site, to have it updated in the index quickly. The catch is to use the content that I write they have to include my resource box. The resource box talks about me and then gives me a link to a site that I want. I submit a bunch of free content to the directories where webmasters go find it. When they find it an publish it I get a link back to my site. The best part is even if a webmaster doesn't publish my article the directories they go for publish my article and that creates links. I don't link out on my site at all. I do have meta tags, but they don't really do much. I also only have a 3 page website and it still ranks nicely.
To conclude, it is not a big site, website code or meta tags. The highest I have ever ranked came from writing unique articles and distributing them. It is so much fun to share information that I find through articles. It is also a manual process which Google loves. Each one of my articles is unique so Google knows I am not just generating gibberish to throw off their index. This causes my links to be weighted very nicely. My basic job to promote my websites is to share the free information and pull links to my site. - 15336
My next feeling was that it must have been the size of the site that had to do with the ranking. I had a problem though in that I would not be able to build large sites because there really wasn't much content on a subject. Every number one site seemed to have a ton of indexed pages. Then I cam across Traffic Booster Pro. This is a program that takes RSS feeds, randomized them and creates a ton of highly optimized pages. Within days I saw results. I was ranked number 60 for a very competitive keyword. I was so excited, I had finally figured it out. Google crawled several times a day. I had the bigger site. This program built all those pages I needed, and redirected each user to my homepage. I got a major increase in traffic for a period of time, but one day because Google crawled so much it crashed my entire data center. Then I noticed my rankings fell completely off Google. I figured once the data center was fixed and I slowed Google's crawl rate on my site my rankings would return. Big mistake, Google had penalized my site. My site doesn't even rank number 1 for the made up keyword in my domain now, all because of this program.
I then went on to exchange links. I bought programs like SEO elite, which I do recommend for anybody to use, but not for this purpose. More on that program later. I also joined Linkmarket.net. I exchanged links like wild fire, making sure that my anchor text changed, following all the Guru's advice. They claimed this is how they got their rankings. Bull, exchanging links is absolutely worthless. After doing this for a month, I went to see if the Guru's were still offering link exchanges on their sites, if they had partner directories. Yeah right, there was no directories. They had already realized this was an ineffective strategy. Now links do help, search on Google for click here. Adobe ranks #1 and they don't even have click here text on the page.
So to answer the question, no link exchanging does nothing for SEO. The two ways to get your sites link that are not exchanges you can share information or make link bait. The article that you are reading right now helps my rankings. I just write experiences and information that I have retained in knowledge, the distribute it to webmasters to update content on their site. This helps the webmasters by making Google visit their site often since they are constantly adding content. Best part is when they like and add my content they add a link to my site. I write articles several times a day about different things that relate to my website. This is how I get links to my site, without exchanging them. I exchange information of a one-way text link.
There really are two ways like I said. Link bait, and content sharing. Link bait is like the chicken website for Burger King if you can remember that. If you saw it you would remember it was a guy in a chicken suit on video that did stupid things. It ranked Burger King number one for the single word chicken. That is quite a jump. It was people liked it an virally linked to it from their sites. The drawback to link bait is you better be extremely creative, or have someone build link bait for an astronomical price. There is a better way.
Content sharing is exactly what you are looking at. I published this informational article for webmasters to add to their site. If people like it several website will publish it. A SEO site trying to provide free advice my put this article online. This helps them because if they constantly add content Google will spider frequently. This can help them if they make a change to their site, to have it updated in the index quickly. The catch is to use the content that I write they have to include my resource box. The resource box talks about me and then gives me a link to a site that I want. I submit a bunch of free content to the directories where webmasters go find it. When they find it an publish it I get a link back to my site. The best part is even if a webmaster doesn't publish my article the directories they go for publish my article and that creates links. I don't link out on my site at all. I do have meta tags, but they don't really do much. I also only have a 3 page website and it still ranks nicely.
To conclude, it is not a big site, website code or meta tags. The highest I have ever ranked came from writing unique articles and distributing them. It is so much fun to share information that I find through articles. It is also a manual process which Google loves. Each one of my articles is unique so Google knows I am not just generating gibberish to throw off their index. This causes my links to be weighted very nicely. My basic job to promote my websites is to share the free information and pull links to my site. - 15336
About the Author:
Brent Sweet is the President of Article Submission Express. This is a company that can help you distribute articles such as this through the internet for instant links to your site, and improved rankings. Click here to read more about Article Submission.
