One of the most common ways to get backlinks to your website is through link exchanges.  For those new to SEO, a basic example of a link exchange would be when two website owners agree to post a link on their website that points to the other’s website (this is referred to as a reciprocal link).

While an incoming reciprocal link does carry some value, it’s value is diminished because you are also linking out to that same website.  Sometimes, however, you can do a three way link exchange, which is much more valuable.  In a three way link exchange, site A links to site B, site B links to site C, and site C links to site A.  While these are usually a little harder to get, this results in a more valuable incoming link.

How to Get Link Exchanges

One of the most common ways to find an opportunity to for a link exchange is simply by finding related websites and contacting the webmaster to request an exchange of links.  This can sometimes turn into a lengthy process, but is usually the best way to get high quality links from some authoritative websites (assuming you go about requesting the link in the right way).

Don’t be discouraged when you don’t hear back from every one that you’ve contacted for a link exchange.  In general, you’ll send a lot of emails before you get someone to trade with you (especially if they are a more authoritative site).

There are also some networks out there that can help facilitate both reciprocal and three way link exchanges.  The value of such networks vary greatly, but can be another resource nonetheless.

A Common Problem with Link Exchanges

One of the difficulties with link exchanges (and with all link building for that matter) is that there’s no guarantee that your incoming link will stay live on the other person’s website.  While we like to believe that most people are honest in their dealings, it’s not entirely uncommon for your link exchange “partner” to take off your link a few weeks or months after you’ve done the link exchange.  By this time, you’ve gotten dozens of other links and have likely forgotten about that particular website.  Besides, who has time to continually check and verify that all their incoming link are still live?

Should this discourage you from doing link exchanges?  No.  It’s just the nature of the beast and the game that all people play in order to climb the rankings of the search engines.

A Solution to the Problem

There is, however, a tool that automatically checks each of your incoming links and verifies if it is still live on other website.  All you have to do is input your link information when you receive it and at any given time with a click of a button you’ll know exactly which websites still have your incoming link and which ones have taken them off.

In addition, the tool tracks the PR (Page Rank) of the site linking to you, the anchor text of the link, the contact information for the webmaster, how much you paid for the link (if applicable), and much more!

The tool is completely free.  In order to use it, all you have to do is post a link that the tool provides for you.  It’s called BacklinkReporter and can be found at www.BacklinkReporter.com.