Link building strategies have, for most people for a long time, revolved around reciprocal link exchanges. Whilst most people understand that links are important, they generally don't understand why this is so. In a nutshell, a link to your site has traditionally been accepted by Search Engines as a vote for your site. A link from a topic or theme-related site to yours is better than a link from a site having a completely different topic. An important site's link to yours carries more weight - for example from The Open Directory, or Yahoo Directory. All pretty straightforward...

When the Internet was new to me, I was fascinated by following links and going to new sites. It was like an adventure. And when I had my own website the first thing that I wanted to do was to place my site's links on other sites. I began reciprocal linking (trading links with other sites) way back then, but 11 years later things have changed and now I dread getting a "reciprocal link request" in my email inbox. I have a few pet peeves with reciprocal linking, as it is practiced today, and here they are:

Ask Google, search engines love links. Of course, they love some links more than others. For example, a simple link exchange (reciprocal link) doesn't have as much value to search engines and so, it doesn't receive the same weight as a non-reciprocal (one-way) link – the theory being that a one-way, in-bound link is a recommendation from a site owner to visit this linked site. The link, itself, is testament to the quality of the site being referred.

A good links page can give a boost to traffic. But what should you look for when link trading? This simple guide will defend you against building a poor links page.

Google has just sent the Search Marketing world into a frenzy of hair pulling and nail biting. Its latest shake up of its algorithm has put paid to unrestrained link swapping. It had gone overboard like Meta tag stuffing before it. Even before this latest revision, all signs indicate that the Search Engines were beginning to devalue reciprocal links and forum signatures in their SERP's. So what is a harried webmaster to do? Are backlinks still relevant to search rankings? If they still count, how do you acquire them without running afoul of the SE's?

Link trading is the task of getting links to your site on other sites by trading.. umm.. links. This is done to get more traffic to you web site. Link trading creates more traffic in two main ways, increased search engine rankings and also from the traffic the links themselves generate from people clicking on them.

Link trading is a great, free way to promote your small or home-based business. However, many links pages are crowded with inappropriate or disorganized links, taking away from the professionalism of the website. Here are a few tips to make your links page work for you: