Web Ring Links

[Jon_King]

I've never used a web ring for links but occasionally I'm asked to trade links with a site that does.

What's your take on these rings? Would you link to a site that is part of one?

[guitaristinus]

I've never been part of a web ring. If the sites involved are doing it for link pop (read rage rank) then I'd stay away. But if the people really do have a common interest and honestly want to share their knowledge with others, then I can see it being a good thing. There are still some noble webmasters out there.;) It seems to me someone asking you to trade links is not doing the ring thing for the reason I would want to join.

[grandpa]

..What's your take on these rings? Would you link to a site that is part of one?

I'm listed in several on-topic web rings. Why? For the same reason I use Adwords or Overture or SEO my pages, reach.

I think the "web-ring thing" has probably peaked, but I consider any traffic I get from my listing to be highly targetted traffic.

Would I link to a site that is part of a ring? It really depends on the site, and the ring. If they are relevant, absolutely.

[mmontala]

I have fears on joining a web ring too and concerns search engine SERP. Will it hurt my rankings on yahoo or google? Will those search engine consider it as free for all links? Thanks.

[MkSlim]

I've been looking at the posibility of joining one of the web rings myself, but I would like some more feedback from people that already have tried it.

any downsides?

Mk

[grandpa]

The only downside I could see was adding the ring link directly to my product pages. The link is usually some image, you've probably seen them. If you haven't I'll sticky a page where you can see what I mean.

So, I created a new page... a landing page just for ring traffic. From there I give visitors options to visit different parts of my site. That keeps ring graphics off my regular pages.

[MkSlim]

thank you grandpa. I think it's great they allow for the special links page instead of placing the graphics on the content pages.

Mk

[eggypiece]

Jon_King,
I am a member of about 200 web rings and manage 72 myself. I only join the ones that deal with my themes. I have never had any problems with the web ring links, and as a matter of fact, some of them are listed as backward links in Google.