Every website needs a link exchange program. Every week,

set aside time to work on your link exchange program to

build up the quality and number of your text links out on

other websites within your niche market. Why not exchange banners? Search engines are fueled by

text. Key words and links are what you are creating out on

other websites. Website visitors do indeed check link pages

and your text link on quality sites will generate some

degree of traffic for you. You may like the look of your

banner but when it comes to creating a strong link exchange

program - build your website description with good key words

and strong title with your URL. What should your link exchange information look like?A link exchange program starts with your own unique text ad

under 200 characters full of your key words, don't need

sentences, put most important key words early in the text

ad, check spelling, no "ALL CAPS"

set up in this order:TitleDescriptionURLYour title - A descriptive title for your website, not

necessarily your domain name but the name you are branding

your site with. There are very strong websites that use a

title that describes the site rather than the domain name,

again, using strong key words. Others have opted to use a

title that starts with a number or letter "A" so that on

another website - their text link will appear early in the

page. Website Description - Use Overture's Keyword Selector

Tool to refine your text for your website description. The

more thought and planning you put into your title and

description, the more powerful your link exchange will have

on search engines. Categorizing your own text link - To save time and energy,

think about what categories your text link would work on

(i. e. work at home recourses, parenting, home decor, time

management - the theme of your website) because some sites

will want you choose the category that your website will fit

in!Once you have designed your own link description, you are

ready to set up your own link exchange program for your

website. As you will be asking other website owners to put

your link information on their "links" or "resource" page,

you need to set up your own page for you to place their link

exchange information. This is called reciprocal link

exchange. Reciprocal Link Exchange - In essence, you are "swapping

links". It is an even trade. Your text link on one of

their links pages with your URL pointing to your homepage

and you place their text link information on your links page

while setting up their link to connect with their homepage

(index page). Before you can offer a reciprocal link exchange with another

webmaster, you will often need to show them you have already

put their link information on your website. Designate at least one page for your link exchange program.

As your link exchanges grow, you will expand your pages into

different categories. Make sure your link exchange program

is linked to your main page and every page of your website.

Alphabetize and categorize your listing of reciprocal links. Just starting your link exchange program?Have your page all set up for links from other websites plus

have the information others need to exchange links with

you. Once you have designed your own link information and a

resource page to put up the links information from your link

partners, it is time to start asking other website owners to

put Your Link Information on their own links page. Choosing your link partners for reciprocal link exchangeThink niche. Your website has a theme, a specialty-

a marketing niche. Choose link exchanges with websites that

have similar themes. If your website is about handmade

candles then focus on websites that offer handmade,

handcrafted products. Explore websites with candle

accessories, home decor, gifts and aromatherapy. Websites that offer what you believe your visitors would

enjoy are where you focus your link exchanges. Choose sites

that are complementary to your own, not competitive. The

more closely related the subject of your link partner's

site, the more relevant your own link description will be to

their visitors and to search engines. Page Rank - the higher the page rank of the site that you

exchange links with, the more impact on search engines.

That does not mean that you should not exchange links with

websites that only have a page rank of 3 or higher but the

majority of your link exchanges should be with websites

ranking well with top search engines. Test your own link popularity - you have already exchanged

links with some websites and now you want to know if it's

helping you with search engines. I found UpTimeBot usefully

for getting a handle on what's happening with your link

exchange program. Its disheartening that Google is slow to catch up with your

link exchanges but be persistent in your weekly time to set

up quality reciprocal link exchanges. The other major search engines will help you with traffic

and link popularity until Google does it's own bit.

Persistence with your link exchange program does pay off!In the end, Google DOES catch all the hard work and you will

start getting the traffic and page rank your website

deserves!Tammy Ames works daily online building WAHM Work at Home

Connections and helping other work at home families market

on the internet. Tammy publishes a weekly online newsletter

Work at Home Connections Ezine. Subscribe to spend time

each weekly learning to succeed online.

Author:
Tammy Ames