Link exchanges have always been one of the best ways to raise your search engine ranking and have evolved a lot since the influx of Internet marketing.   Link exchanges are a leading factor in improving placements in search engines, such as Google, and are a relatively easy and cost effective way to increase traffic to your Web site.  Effective link exchanges can expose your site to Internet users worldwide on a limited or zero budget.   Increasing the number of inbound links will help in consumer awareness of your product/service and assist in branding your company’s image.

But beware; it is important to note that if you are engaging in reciprocal link exchanges with a number of bad quality and irrelevant sites, Google may ultimately penalize you for being irresponsible with your Web site content.   The key is to do your research and develop link exchanges with sites that are going to be of relevance and use to your Web site’s visitors and the community.   Exchanging links with low-quality, low-traffic pages is not going to do much for you.  However, link exchanges with high-quality, high-traffic sites can provide a great benefit in terms of improving search engine ranking and attracting more quality and targeted traffic to your Web site.

-Kristine Bruner