Everyday I get a “link exchange request” email. My clients get them too, and probably so do you. So, should you accept the invitation?
To help you decide, answer these questions:
- Will the link improve your users experience? Will the link add value?
- Are the links relevant to your industry? Or are the links completely random and unrelated? (eg you sell shoes, but the link goes to an life insurance website)
If they are completely random, don’t do it.
Recently, I was curious about what an Indian based SEO company would do as a free trial for one of my clients. All they did was add a link to my clients website to their own websites which already have hundreds of irrelevant links. Not useful. Not valuable. Not effective. Here is one of their websites.
And if these spammy link farm websites are tricking Google at the moment and are actually getting decent rankings themselves, what will Google do when they take a closer look? They’ll delete them from the Google index, that’s what.
Here’s what Matt Cutts from Google has to say on the subject:
