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If you manage a website then you know that trading links with other sites is a valuable method of promoting it, increasing the value of your search engine optimization efforts and getting more traffic. Topical links can generate loads of traffic to your site by helping you get and keep a top position on the major search engines results pages. Additionally many quality links such as directories and industry related sites deliver high quality, pre qualified customers.

The true value of links really depends on how you go about getting links.

Like most things in life, the best results rarely come from the easiest or least expensive method. The truth is that only on topic links help to get high search engine rankings which will take time and effort. People who follow a link from an on-topic site are pre qualified and prone to buy. Your potential link partners can ONLY be generated through one on one contact with other site owners, one email at a time.

Avoid the seemingly endless supply of automated link exchanges where you sign up and have tens or even hundreds of links point to your site. These links will NOT help your search positions because generally the links are not targeted to your business. They deliver inferior and generally useless results, unqualified tire-kickers and endless spam.

There are also a lot of 'Link Monkeys' out there. A 'Link Monkey' is someone who does nothing but look for links. All they care about is quantity not quality. Many web managers hire a high school kid or a intern to gather links. Others outsource the task to a third world country because the labor is cheap. The monkey's job is not to find quality link partners but to trade links with anyone willing to trade.

I would bet that you receive at least one or more "form letter" email every couple of days, telling you that your site has been visited, and a link has been added to the visitors site, with a request to link back to them. Many of these are from automated link trade programs that list hundreds, even thousands of sites, categorized in various ways. Chances are very good that the site requesting the link has nothing to do with your sites 'theme and is totally off topic. Others email solicitations have so many grammatical errors that it is hard to understand that they want you to trade links with them.

There are basically three reasons that other sites will link to you:

For your content. This group likes what you have to say and feel that the content you have on your site will enhance their visitors experience. Successful sites have a lot of content of use to others. These 'natural' links are also the links that are most likely to be included in the content of another site and drive traffic to your site. This includes Press releases and articles.

Link trades. Some of these are from automated sites and others are from people who are actually taking the time to search for a keyword or topic, find sites related (but not competing) with their site and requesting a trade. The only time it is worth your while to agree to a reciprocal link trade is if the site you are trading with is on topic with your site. Having a link from a computer store to an auto dealer has no value for either site.

You pay them for a link. In the most recent Google Update (Jagger October/November 2005) many sites that had 'site wide' (a link from all the pages of a site) inbound links have been penalized, dropping them from their formerly high search engine ranking positions. Some of the popular brokers for text links have been selling site wide links for years. Another downside to purchasing links is that most links don't pass Google Page Rank for at least a couple of months and you have to pay for them every month. Again, these links must be from on-topic sites for you to gain benefit.

If you tire of spending time on researching link partnerships and doing the time consuming leg work required for a link popularity campaign, consider hiring a professional.

Professional link popularity services will help you to analyze the number and quality of links pointing to your site as well as the number of and type of links you need to compete in your niche market. By tailoring link building strategies to individual site needs they can find relevant, targeted links. Additionally, a good linking company has experience in the Search Engine Optimization industry and can assist you with key word selection and other issues your site may have that are keeping it from achieving top search engine positions.

Done correctly, link campaigns deliver long term results and enhance search engine optimization efforts.