Exchanging Links (obtaining links on other sites in lieu of their links on your site) to
boost the PR of your own website on the search engines is one of the time tested
techniques, which has withstood the onslaught of time. Although its weightage has
reduced a little as compared to what it was in the early years of SEO, it is still one
of the best methods to improve upon the search engine rankings, and jack up the PR
(page rank).


Link Exchange or Link Building methods mainly revolve around quality and relevancy.
The sites with which the links are being swapped, should be the reputed ones,
with a high PR and good incoming links. They should be in the same niche as your own
site. For example, if you own an insurance site, then you should aim to swap links
with motor insurance, personal insurance or financial websites.


Observe the following steps to build up an effective Link Exchange Campaign:


Researching for Appropriate Keywords: Selection of the relevant keywords, which can help
the web users find your site is very important. For this purpose, you may start with a
general list of keywords related to your website, and build upon the same with the keywords
related to the neighboring niches. If you have an insurance site, the most relevant keywords
for you could be motor insurance, auto insurance, personal insurance, general insurance,
finance, personal finance, financial websites etc. You may take the help of keyword research
tools, to help you build up an exhaustive list of keywords.
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Searching for prospective Link Partners: The best way to look for good related link partners,
is to conduct a "search" on major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN etc using
different keywords. Don't focus on just the first page, because the sites already appearing on
the top pages, may not be interested in swapping links with you. You will get the best
results from the sites appearing down below


Selection of the best Link Partners: After compiling a list of websites related to yours,
you should discard the useless ones, and focus on the good ones. Getting incoming links
from .gov or .edu sites are better than getting links from the sites which host free of cost.
Don't focus on just the Page Rank of the prospective link partners, although it is also one of the
prime factors affecting the rankings of your site. Also never link to the dubious sites
and link farms.


Sending out the Link Exchange Requests: Before sending out the requests for links to the
prospective link partners, it is advisable, if you set up an exclusive Links Page or
a Links Directory. And don't forget to mention the exact url where you would be including
their links, while mailing them. Likewise don't forget to mention your
own anchor text, the url to which the anchor text should point to, and the brief
description of your website, preferably not more than 250 characters.


Effective management of the Link Exchange Campaign: Once you have got your link in place on
the other website, it is very necessary to monitor that the link does not get deleted,
and remains in place with the right anchor text and the accompanying description.
There are several tools on the internet, some of them absolutely free, with which you can
monitor the incoming links to your site. One such tool which I have been using
for over three years is the "Web CEO". It is a very compact tool for doing the Keyword
Research, Finding Prospective Link Partners, Managing Correspondence, Monitoring the
Incoming Links and lots of other features.