Is link exchange risky

A handy way to improve your rankings is link exchange .. but is it safe?

[getxb]

We all know that link exchange is a handy way to improve our rankings. I reply to mails that contains good requests. Sometimes I too send requests to webmasters. But I wonder is this safe .. doesnt it contains any risk? If a copy of the mail is sent to google .. :(!

Please comment.

Regards,
getxb

[Crush]

You are about 2 years too late. Eveyone does links swaps. In fact I would be more worried about yahoo than google from a banning perspective. We have a few sites banned recently and I guess it is down to links pages when we filtered everything else out that it could be.

I would not worry. Start trading links.

[CainIV]

Crush good point. I have noticed devaulations from Yahoo too.

What's worse is if you do exchange links and run into a problem in Yahoo, it's best to resolve the problem on your own. Once you contact them and they look at your site, they *may* demote you.

Links exchanges still have value, just not nearly the same as they used to. They can bring relevant traffic when used properly.

[getxb]

Let me site one example .. One of sites page was ranking well in google. Infact it was at #12 with a very competitive keyword. I used to do link exchange on a regular basis and was getting the results too. Suddenly in a months time I saw it dropped to 42. I wonder what went wrong.

Regards,
getxb

[Moncao]

getxb
"Suddenly in a months time I saw it dropped to 42. I wonder what went wrong"

Thing with Google is there are so many factors, so it may be nothing to do with link ex. If it is though, only link ex with same industry sites and check to make sure no bad neighborhood sites have linked with you, and no 3 way links (I understand these are not good).

By the way, I have a number of site with link ex. I went back after 2 years and found something like 85% of the link partner sites gone or were cheating me one way or another (robots noindex being the most common along with simply removing their link to me).

I think keeping your link exchange on topic is the thing these days.

:-)

[idolw]

what is risky is sending out zillions of link swap requests if it is done not properly.

[getxb]

Thing with Google is there are so many factors, so it may be nothing to do with link ex. If it is though, only link ex with same industry sites and check to make sure no bad neighborhood sites have linked with you, and no 3 way links (I understand these are not good).

Hi Moncao and thanks for your comments. I am pretty aware of all the major factors but still I wonder what might have went wrong. And why not 3-way links? Do you insist on 2-way swaps?

what is risky is sending out zillions of link swap requests if it is done not properly.

Hi Idolw, I agree with you. One sending link swap requests should be very careful with the choice of words as also the overall construction of the letter. I do get a lot of requests and in every letter I find everything is disclozed. I dont think this is a smart move these days. Whether someone is your friend or enemy .. who knows!

Regards,
getxb