Linking With Similar Pages

Why should we do that?

[knoir]

Ok guys, i have had this thought on my head for ages. Why is it that people insist that we link with other sites that are similar to ours. I think that it just makes the job harder for many reasons. You help your competitor move up the ranks by placing his link on a good page of yours, and your competitor might help you move up the ranks by placing your link on his site.

You both might benefit, but after all, you are competitors, and if you both benefit, you are then competing even more.

Imagine this concept in real life. Its like putting a big advertisement to your competitors store inside of your store. It just doesn't make sense.

I believe that when it comes to seo, and reciprocal links, you should exchange with good pages, not just sites that are relevant to yours.

The last thing that i want one of my visitors to do is go to my number one competitor when he doesn't find what he wants on my site.

To prove my point, search for - miserable failure - on google. as some of you might now, the president of the united states biography comes up. How does one mans biography comes up when people search for miserable failure? did the white house go around exchanging links with sites that were deemed as miserable failure sites? or did people link to that site using the term miserable failure? The answer is #2 again.

Another example is if you go and search for viagra on google. A few of those top 10 sites actually made their way up the serps by posting comments on blogs. I believe that that is a form of spamming and that the algo will be tuned up for this, but my point is that none of those blogs they exchanged links had similar content.

I really don't understand the concept of linking to similar sites. People say to do it for your visitors, , that sounds like a good idea, but does it really help you?

I believe that if you want your site to be known, you need to let everyone hear about it. That is how people and things become popular. All of the big sites with Page Rank values of 9, the sites that contain thousands of backlinks. Sites such as microsoft.com, amazon.com, cnn.com, do you think that they rank high because they link with other similar sites? no. They rank high because all sorts of sites link to them.

[DaveAtIFG]

I really don't understand the concept of linking to similar sites

Message 12 and beyond at [webmasterworld.com...] may provide you some ideas.

[too much information]

Let me suggest that you don't link to your competition but instead to sites that your customers may also be looking for.

For example, if I am looking for a Wedding Location, wouldn't I probably also need an Officiant? maybe a DJ, or Photographer? they could all link to each other without linking to their competition and the common theme would be "wedding"

another example, Real Estate... you could possibly need a Land Surveyor, Builder, Title Company, Lender, etc.

It's not really a matter of linking to your direct competition, but link to things that your users may also need. You might be suprised what hits you get from searches for each of those topics, or reciprocal links from those sites.

Besides, it's not just about getting links, it's about getting useful links that may actually result in sales. I could get a thousand links from blogs, but I would not realistically expect my business to increase from those links. However I may get some good sales from targeted links on related sites even without the links helping my rank in the SERPs.

*edited for spelling

[knoir]

I do agree with the whole linking concept. I do agree with linking with sites that relate to my own. What i do not agree on, is linking to sites that are no way remotely related to mine.

If my site is about widgets, and i am offered a link on a pr7 page from a site that deals with birthday clowns, by all means, i will exchange links. Not only will my pr increase, but i will move up the serps for the keyword i choose