New site: Link Exchange page?

[pokeraussie]

Just checked a site from the last link exchange request email I received. The keyword being targeted is getting 0 monthly exact searches according to GKT. The on-page SEO for the keyword is well optimised and it has about 60 unique domains linking to the site, mostly from recip link exchanges, yet it's still not ranking top 3 for this pathetic keyword that no one else is targeting.

[CodeRed]

Small sample IMO.

I have the #2 listing in google for a very popular poker strategy keyword, above even the site with the exact match keyword in the domain. We only lose to PokerListings.

For the past 3 months (all post panda) we've gone from #7, to #6 to now #2 and the only thing I've done is just blasted this keyword out to link exchanges. We've done 0 of the above advice regarding blog posts, article exchanges or anything else. I've also done this with several other keywords pre panda and, with several months of link exchanges, the rankings go from the late 40's to front page.

[pokeraussie]

my bad, you are right, its logical that the links that are the easiest to obtain have the most SEO benefit.

[pokerprop]

90% Build links that no competitor can copy
10% Build links they can copy

[faststeady]

90% Build links that no competitor can copy
10% Build links they can copy

whats this mean pls prop ?

cheers
jason

[Trikkur]

An exchange links page is very easy for your competitors to find and do the same exact thing with the same exact sites. If you only build links that your competitors can copy, you will pretty much always lose in the long run.

Links your competitors can't copy are pretty much anything related to natural linking. If you have a piece of high quality content and it gets 5-10 natural links, then how can your opponent get those same ones? So if you copy your competitors link strategy then you will place higher than him because of your extra natural links.

I'm guessing that is what Prop is talking about, but I could be wrong.

[pokeraussie]

90% of your links don't need to be links that can't be copied that's ridiculously overstated. The fact is most links can be copied, and the harder they are to get, the harder they are to copy. It's not just a pure numbers game, quality is far superior to quantity and at the end of the day, you just need more hard to copy links from unique sources then your competitors (some of this depends on luck as well). If you can achieve that, then replicating the rest of their backlinks profile is a piece of cake.

[oconnor1]

I wouldn't waste your time on link exchanges with the exception of a few really good sites in your niche. If you don't know how to do other outreach, I think your time is better spent on building directory links and forum posts then it is on link exchanges.

[pokeraussie]

Small sample IMO.

I have the #2 listing in google for a very popular poker strategy keyword, above even the site with the exact match keyword in the domain. We only lose to PokerListings.

For the past 3 months (all post panda) we've gone from #7, to #6 to now #2 and the only thing I've done is just blasted this keyword out to link exchanges. We've done 0 of the above advice regarding blog posts, article exchanges or anything else. I've also done this with several other keywords pre panda and, with several months of link exchanges, the rankings go from the late 40's to front page.

Ranking first page for a strategy keyword would be super easy to do.

If no one else is targeting the keyword of course an ineffective link building strategy will help somewhat.

But that doesn't prove that it's an effective link building strategy. I can hear you saying, well prove it's not, but I really couldn't be assed wasting my time on something that is such common knowledge, and more to the point, I know it doesn't work, I am not really benefiting from preaching to the non believers.

This post discusses the ineffectiveness of link exchanges plus some other solid SEO advice.

Search engine optimization (SEO) - What not to do | Adventures of a New Business Owner

[pokeraussie]

sorry double post