Reciprocal links swaps

Q:  What is the best approach when soliciting a reciprocal link swap with other website owners who have similar niche markets?
Leah Burton
https://www.womenstoolshed.com

A:  Hi Leah–

Actually, reciprocal linking is a big no-no in today's web marketing world.  It used to be a very sound strategy to gain exposure to your site, but in the last 2 years or so, reciprocal linking hurts you more than helps you, at least according to the Internet marketing experts like Tom Antion, who typically gives pretty sound advice.

Today's link strategy is inbound links in which a site (preferably one with lots of traffic) is linking to yours but you don't link back to them.  The primary way I accomplish that is through article marketing, in which my site URL is listed on highly traffic article directory sites (like EzineArticles.com or GoArticles.com) or when my article is picked up and published on the home page of a high traffic website like SiteProNews.com, which happened last week for me.  I get found on these high traffic sites by using an article submission service, https://www.GetMoreClientsArticles.com.

Here's some more detailed info about inbound links from Google's Webmaster Central blog, https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/10/good-times-with-inbound-links.html.

Remember your anchor text, or what text your hyperlink is attached to, when the inbound link is created.  For example, instead of having a link to my name back to my site., i.e. Donna Gunter, I would be much smarter to create anchor text using keyword for which I want to be found, like Internet Marketing Coach.

More info on anchor text can be found here.

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