Should You Link Exchange in 2023? It Depends

Link Exchanges are a tedious, time-consuming, and even demoralising process.

Several individuals will even buy backlinks because of this.

Let’s examine if you can get ranking success from a link exchange in 2023.

What is a link exchange?

A link exchange is a network of sites acting in a web ring. Webmasters sign up for an exchange and follow instructions for a backlink swap. Unlike a web ring, where the HTML code merely consists of simple circular ring navigation hyperlinks, a link exchange’s HTML code causes the display of banner advertisements, for the sites of other members of the exchange, on the member web sites, and webmasters must create such banner advertisements for their own web sites.

Downloading them from a marketplace is how banners are obtained. The monitor of the exchange keeps tabs on banner impressions by using browser referral data to determine how frequently each member’s website has shown the banner ads of other members. In a typical link exchange, one member will show the banner ads of the other member half as often as they display their own. One credit is equivalent to a certain number of pageviews.

Microsoft now owns the pioneering link trading platform LinkExchange.

Link exchanges may have both beneficial and bad impacts from the viewpoint of those who use the Internet for advertising purposes. These are tried and true methods of linking that have the potential to boost a website’s “link popularity” with search engines and, by extension, its traffic (for link exchanges if all participants of the exchange have comparable web sites).

When it comes to SEO, Google is not a fan of exchanging links or other paid linking operations. Google may penalise sites that engage in “Link Schemes,” such as excessive link exchanges and reciprocal linking, by demoting them or banning them altogether.

Backlinks, Link Swaps, and Link Exchanges – You have undoubtedly encountered the words before. The differences are negligible.

Whether Google approves, there are still many bloggers and website owners who would be happy to engage in a link swap or backlinks exchange.

It is believed that obtaining a high-quality backlink would send a ‘trust’ signal to Google, which might provide the receiving site an edge in search engine results.

Is Exchanging Links a Working SEO Strategy?

Link exchanges are often discouraged by conventional SEOs (particularly those who aren’t actively engaged in the link building arena).

Although some SEO and link building professionals advocate for link exchanges, the vast majority would rather use alternative methods. Yet as I’ve experienced firsthand, the SEO industry is evolving, and even the most accomplished practitioners are looking for a leg up.

The reality is that using this method may help you get some really high-quality inbound connections.

Let’s investigate some other forms of link trading now.

While it has been shown that the “Link to me and I’ll link to you” method is mostly fruitless, there are few instances when such connections may be beneficial.

Even though they don’t assist you with SEO, getting a reciprocal link on a very reputable website in your area may provide a significant amount of very useful referral traffic to your site and increase brand recognition.

PBNs (Private Blog Network)

When many blogs/sites are controlled by the same person or company, they form a Private Blog Network (PBN).

A PBN is a network of websites that work together to boost one another in the search engine results.

Getting links via PBNs is typically seen as a link scheme, which is a bad practise in SEO.

If you use private blog network (PBN) connections to boost your search engine results, you risk a severe penalty from Google.

You should expect a drastic drop in search engine ranks or complete removal from Google’s index as a consequence of this punishment.

So, how can you recognise a PBN and stay away from it?

Verify the IP addresses and domain information.

Several PBNs have the same owner listed as the registrant. Indicative of a closed blog network is the presence of a common registrant name or email address across the domains.

Another tell-tale sign of a PBN is the use of a shared IP address by several websites.

Most PBNs are full of spammy links and irrelevant, low-quality material. The presence of badly written, irrelevant information on a website may indicate that it is affiliated with a PBN.

The Anchor text used in PBN links are often keyword-rich. Over-optimization of anchor texts may indicate that a website is part of a private blog network.

Inspect anchor texts for overuse of keywords and suspicious link structures.

Suspicious outbound link patterns include an abnormally high concentration of links from a single source, highly optimised anchor texts, or connections from just a handful of sites.

Even if a resource isn’t a PBN but displays evidence of artificial linking patterns, it’s still not a smart idea to reach out to them for link building since any backlinks you obtain from them will have a much lower value than if you had gotten them from a PBN.

Swapping Guest Posts

A guest post exchange, as you may have guessed from the name, involves posting whole articles on each other’s websites instead of just exchanging links.

These guest articles will not be counted in the algorithm if they include any reciprocal links.

But, the importance of any outbound links included inside a guest post you write for a website that has already published an article on your own should not be discounted.

So, you may increase exposure for a partner website or other resource of yours by exchanging guest posts, for instance.

This essentially amounts to a 3-way link exchange, which is discussed further below.

Guest post with backlinks exchange are a terrific method to create thought leadership within your field, and they also benefit the host site by providing a high-quality backlink.

Spreading the word about yourself and your company while also demonstrating your competence in your field may be accomplished via the publication of a large volume of informative material that bears your name.

3-Way (A-B-C Link Exchanges)

In 2023, a 3-way link exchange, also known as an A-B-C link exchange, is likely the most secure and widely used method of exchanging connections online.

In this example, site A refers readers to site B, which in turn refers readers to site C.

A-B-C link exchanges are safer than reciprocal link exchanges since they cannot be monitored by search engines.

This means that in 2023, 3-way connections will still be the most common kind of link exchange since they transfer PageRank.

Theoretically, it’s still a link scheme, but one that’s difficult for search engines like Google to detect and counteract.

A three-way connection exchange may be protected in two ways:

You may supply your prospect with a link from another website or link building partner and get a backlink for your own resource in exchange.
Reach out to individuals by providing them with connections to your future work when you write guest articles for other publications.

The first choice is faster, but the second is better for you in the long run since it will result in both a guest post publication and a link from a high-quality website.

The more guest articles you write, the more opportunities you’ll have to include links in them, increasing the number of backlinks you get.

Find Out What Google Has to Say About It.

Excessive link exchanges are explicitly forbidden by Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. It’s fascinating to zero down on the specific words and phrases Google uses, however.

“Partner sites that exist only for the purpose of cross-linking” or “extensive link exchanges (‘Link to me, and I’ll link to you’)”

If I had a good buddy in the internet marketing area, we would definitely connect to each other, which is why the term “Excessive” shows that even Google understands and appreciates that it’s extremely normal for websites to link to one other in certain scenarios.

But Will I Face Consequences?
Of course, I welcome link exchanges, but this is not meant to encourage them; rather, it only states the facts. To this day, I have never heard of a website being punished because of a link exchange.

For reasons that we’ll get into later, the chance is low. Nonetheless, Google has a history of publicly shaming individuals, so there is always a first time for everything.

Do you want to automatically get high-authority backlinks?

Google can’t detect the difference between a manufactured link exchange and a natural link exchange until you publicly trade links or openly seek hundreds of websites for link exchanges. After all, Google is just an algorithm built by machines.

Should you even think about a Link Exchange?

Use your common judgement while contemplating a link exchange. You need to forget about the supposed search engine optimisation advantages and link juice. Instead, we should be concentrating on practicality.

Start with the basics and ask yourself: “I’m wondering whether there are any resources on this site that my audience may truly utilise. Ask yourself: Can a link to this person’s website provide value for my audience?”

Always remember to consider the site’s immediate usefulness. Is it high-quality material that is relevant to your site?

The Ethical Way to Get Backlinks?

So, how do you go about developing links if link exchanges are against Google’s guidelines?

If we told you there was a Google-approved method, would you believe us?

If you want people to connect to your material in a “honest” fashion, you need to give them something they want to read first.

Nevertheless, in practise, nearly no one would ever link to another person’s blog article without some form of incentive, therefore you should include such a thing in your pitch.

One such inducement may be a promise of a link from one of your partner sites or an impending guest post as part of a three-way link exchange with your prospective customers.

These deals still qualify as “link schemes,” even if Google is unable to monitor them.

Yet since they’re so difficult to trace, Google has no way of stopping link builders from using them.

The anchor text link building strategy’s premise is to find non-competing articles that mention your target keyword somewhere in the content, and then asking them to add your link on it, so let’s do a step-by-step walkthrough of preparing and running a link building outreach campaign using this method.

Make Content Worth Sharing

You might attempt to get people to link to your home and product pages by offering free links, but in practise, nobody will do that.

Links from low-quality link spam sites, which are the only sites that would agree to such an agreement, have little effect on search engine rankings.

Can I Exchange Links in a Safe Way?

I want to stress that you shouldn’t actively seek out folks who are interested in exchanging connections with you. Instead, you should be helpful to other bloggers and the people around you by openly complimenting them and linking to information that you find useful.

Never link straight from Page A to Page B and vice versa if you are intending to swap links.

Warnings About Link Exchanges

Don’t rely on exchanging links as your only means of gaining backlinks. Use a variety of methods, including guest blogging and outreach with linkable material.

Check your outgoing and incoming links for duplication and make sure your total percentage of link exchanges is within a safe range for your niche and usual range compared to your rivals using a spreadsheet.

A good rule of thumb is to have no more than one link exchange for every ten links from unpaid sources.

Any form of site-wide link exchange should be avoided at all costs. In several fields, this was common practise amongst the general populace many years ago. I think Google has countermeasures in place to negate the positive effect of these links on search engine rankings.