Public-ftp guide

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I'm asked often enough, both by clients and by friends, whether they should exchange a link with the total stranger that just e-mailed them, asking them to do so, and pointing out the benefits of doing so.

The short answer is no.

The long answer is this:

A few years ago, a link counted as a vote in the 'eyes' of a search engine. The formula for top rankings was easy back then: the more links you had (websites linking back to your website) the more 'votes' and (generally) the better you ranked the higher your website appeared in the search engine results).

Pretty soon website owners and anybody with anything more than a passing interest in Internet marketing saw the opportunity to outrank competing websites simply by getting links. And one of the ways to get links is to ask another website owner to place a link on their site pointing at your site.

In exchange for... a link on your site back to their site.

This is called reciprocal linking, and back in the day it worked really well.

This is why you shouldn't exchange links

The ONLY thing you need to remember when it comes to Internet marketing is this: play fair. Not because it's nice, but because search engines are not in this to make you money; they're in this to make themselves money. They have terms of service and a whole range of technology that helps them prevent website owners from manipulating the search engine results.

Getting links in order to increase your website's ranking (appear higher in the search engine results) is an attempt to manipulate the search engine results.

And this is a no no.

The whole idea of the Internet is that everybody has a voice, and people can freely point links at you if they like, support or admire what you have to say.

In other words, they have to place links on their website pointing at your website, to help them tell THEIR audience about YOU.

And they have to do so because they want to, not because you bribed them.

And exchanging links... is not the same as a free vote.

Exchanging links can harm your website's reputation

Today search engines are a lot cleverer than they once were, and they're certainly clever than the website owner who believes he or she can still trick them.

Search engines now place values in links. What those values are, nobody knows. Websites also place value on websites. What those values are is easier to guess in this instance.

In the Internet marketing industry, this value is called reputation, and sometimes it's referred to as 'trust'.

And it's important. In fact, it's KEY.

Your website's authority is affected by your website's reputation. If a website with poor reputation links to your website... then you're putting your website - and your business - on the line.

Get enough links from websites with poor reputations and your website will have poor reputation by proxy.

When somebody asks you to exchange a link with them, unless you know that their website is 'clean' and in good standing with the search engines, then there is every reason on Earth not to exchange that link.

Knowing or even guessing the status of the website in terms of reputation and authority takes knowledge, so unless you have access to a professional with the right knowledge, the prospect of finding out is not even worth considering.

Of course, it goes without say, that you should never ask the owner of the website if their website is 'clean' and in good standing with google and co.

Naturally they'll say yes (because they want a link from you).

So why are people asking you to exchange links?

The main reason a total stranger e-mails you asking you to exchange links is because they want to benefit from it. When it comes to Internet marketing, there is a ton of misinformation and out-of-date 'strategies' that lead to countless people using poor or plain bad practices.

Link building software usually has a bunch of template-ready e-mails that contain the whole message, structured like this:

Greeting ask for link exchange point out the benefits of exchanging links (usually a raft of benefits including better search engine rankings)

A lot of it is not accurate, and some of it is not true.

The bottom line is that most of these people are sending you a template e-mail to convince you to give them a link back.

How or why they found your website is a case of how visible your own website is.

If your website is popular and you actively market it, expect plenty of requests to exchange links. Take it as a compliment and move on, unless you know what you're doing.

Are all s bad?

The answer is no. Link exchanges can be very beneficial, when done correctly. However, the effort involved in checking that their website is 'clean' is seldom worth it.

Moreover, you have no control of their website and who or what they link to - or who links to THEM - now or in the future. A website you agree to exchange links with could have anything from porn websites, gambling websites and spammer websites linking to THEM, and passing some of that reputation to YOUR website.

On the whole, the Internet is full of website owners firing template e-mails to everybody asking for link exchanges with websites that have poor reputation

Keep one thing in mind: if the people asking you to exchange links had strong, authoritative websites, those websites would rank well naturally in the search engines.... and they wouldn't be contacting you (a total stranger) to ask for a link in the first place.

Therefore, assume that their websites are not altogether 'clean'. If they've asked you for a link, they've asked a thousand people (remember, they're using automated software that sends out a template e-mail to hundreds and thousands of addresses at the click of a button).

The verdict: exchange links or not

Unless you can verify the website wanting to link to you is reputable in every sense, don't do it.

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