Forum Moderators: martinibuster
It’s a common advice to exchange links with related sites only and
keep your link directory a service to your visitors.
While these are good points, they can limit your link exchange
campaign.
Think about it. Who visits link directories anyway? Except webmasters
who want to exchange links.
And while exchanging links with related sites only sounds like the
right thing to, does this make any difference to search engines?
My question is. From the search engine point of view, is it okay to
exchange links with sites that are not related to your site?
Ron
> "Think about it. Who visits link directories anyway? Except webmasters who want to exchange links."
Links pages still turn up in SERPs so attract random traffic that way.
I guess off-topic linking should be considered as a legitimate technique - particularly for niche areas that don't have many other "related" sites.
Personally, none of my sites are short of related sites willing to exchange links, so my main concern with off topic link exchanges would be managing the sheer volume of reciprocal links! ;)
Although, I've got to say, I like to keep my sites on topic - not for any particular theory about SEO theming or relevance - just because I think my sites work better that way.
Scott
I just can't see any harm in them exchanging links.
They could be right across the street from one another.
Could they be 'penalized' for this, at least in theory?
- Larry
Suppose there are a couple of businesses in a small town, Mary's Cafe and George's Exxon Station.
They're related. They're in the same town. Search terms:
Yes, of course. I hope the major SEs agree. - Larry
I can tell you that toasters and towels are related, for example.
And what if a blogger links to his favorite roller coaster site, and then later to a car rental company...are those related? Sure they are. Maybe not very valuable, but certainly related.
The flip side is that I'm one who thinks that while most links are good, themed links are better. However, not all agree on that point... :-)
...but I also linked to unrelated without any problem.
Who you link to says something about who you are. That's why Google cautions against linking to so-called bad neighborhoods. If who you link to says something about what your website is about, then you should really think hard about it.
At pubcon, in response to a question about if Google was penalizing aff sites, Matt Cutts said something along the lines of, that if Google comes to your site and all you have for outgoing links is aff links, what does this say about what your site is about? (this is a paraphrase from memory and not a direct quote)
Looked at another way, who you link to, and who links to you, establishes a connection between all of you. This is how Google finds and delists artificial networks.
Now, I have seen websites do awful home made seo with this kind of thinking. Garbage like setting aside one page from which to replicate a DMOZ category, nonesense like that.
I agree that who you link to says something about who you are. In this case, this says they are a business, and other business people may find thw WSJ useful - but it's not strictly speaking on-topic.
...but it's not strictly speaking on-topic.
Very true. But if we expand the field of view, then we may see that they are in the same neighborhood. Oblige me for a moment while I present a different way of looking at this.
Visit the ODP and go to your particular category. Then move up the breadcrumb trail to the more progressively general categories. They are all related beneath a general umbrella. Let's take this set:
Top: Science: Publications: Journals
If your category is Journals, you can go up one cat to Publications and find that Top: Science: Publications: is still your neighborhood. Strictly speaking the sites are not on topic, but still within your neighborhood or area. And still related. If you follow the links they will be interlinked in one fashion or another.
The natural linking patterns of Science Journals will encompass all kinds of things related to science. A more general neighborhood. If these websites were stars, together they would form a galaxy.
Now compare that neighborhood with say the linking patterns you may find in a journal about motorcycles. You're going to find a whole other set of interlinked websites forming their own galaxy.
I try to conceptualize the linking in those terms, to step back and see the larger neighborhood and assess whether or not it is appropriate.
Cars? Racing cars? Racing bikes?
Maps? Roadmaps? Biker towns?
Restaurants? Diners? Truckstops?
Before people started worrying about all this, the linking patterns were very natural, and very all over the place. What do you think?
I'm longing for the day when Google et al can better understand what they're indexing.
