Automated Link Exchanges vs Naturally Occurring Links

posted by Christopher on March 10, 2008

{{chris}} What’s the difference between rented (borrowed) links vs. naturally occurring links?

The difference is HUGE. Please excuse my bluntness. First let’s explain what I consider both of these types of links to be and then we’ll discuss why naturally occurring links are far superior.

Automated Link Exchanges
An automated link exchange is a group of webmasters who decide to link to one another. The link exchange is usually operated by an independent 3rd party and provides a script which you can place anywhere on your site usually the footer or side bar, on one or all of your pages. The script automatically places links to websites participating in the link exchange program. The way participating sites are interlinked is quite complex and designed to try and produce a naturally appearing link structure.

There are many, many different kinds of link exchanges out there all of varying quality. Some of them have made the radar screens of Google Engineers and are slowing being eliminated from the search engines. Others are still safely hidden from the search engines but it’s just a matter of time before they are weeded out. Why? The search engines don’t like artificial linking patterns – they really want to give credit to naturally occurring links.

Naturally Occuring Links

Naturally occurring links are those your site and content receives when visitors to your site decide to link to you for their own reasons. Other forms of naturally occurring links are comments on blogs, forums and interactive sites such as social media news and video sites. In fact there are many more of these types of links.

Which types of links are better? Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why Automated Link Exchanges are bad, and why Naturally Occurring Links are good.

Automated Link Exchanges:

These are borrowed links (in some cases purchased). If you stop participating in the exchange all of the links you’ve received will go away and so will your search engine rankings.
You have limited control over the quality and content of the sites you’re getting links from. Links from gambling and pornography sites will not do you much good from a search engine optimization perspective, and certainly won’t give you an credit if your visitors see these kinds of links
You run the risk of getting banned by one of the search engines. As we’ve mentioned they are actively weeding out link exchanges because they are not a sign of naturally occuring links.
You are not likely to get qualified traffic from these links.

Naturally Occurring Links:

They are free and last forever (at-least as long as the owner leaves the link up)
Will not get you banned from a search engine
You have more control over who links to you – since you can easily ask them to remove the link or improve it
You have more control over where the link appears in the site
You’ll get better qualified traffic from the links you build

So there you have it. Several very good reasons why you should opt for naturally occurring links vs. automated link exchanges. While it takes much more effort to attract natural links, the benefits far outway the extra effort involved. Do it right the first time for the long term and you’ll receive the rewards your hard work deserves – long lasting first page rankings from a strong naturally occurring link profile.

If you have opinions on this topic please post your comments. I am sure it’s going to generate some stimulating conversations both for and against automated link exchanges.

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Comments (17 Comments)

Sevierville Real Estate
March 11, 2008

I know that you listed the link exchange as “automated”, but the manual link exchange can be just as bad if not done properly. I still see many webmasters doing link exchange between sites that has essentially created a link farm from anything and everything but related sites.
ckata
March 11, 2008

Right on. You can do just as much damage by manually linking with terrible sites! It’s a whole other realm, but at the very least you do have control over the process so you can at least minimize the risk by doing proper research about those you want to exchange lnks with.

Thanks for commenting!
Ismael Tabije
March 12, 2008

As in anything, taking short cuts is generally not good in the long run. Trying to game the system or algo of Google, especially.

Google has thousands of software engineers and analysts who are not idiots. In rare instances, you may fool them for a while but sooner than later they will catch up with you.
PR4 Link Directory
March 12, 2008

I agree with the previous comments. I prefer to build my links manually as I trust my better judgement than automated softwares…
Organic SEO Services
March 13, 2008

I agree that natural is better for the most part, especially if those natural links contain somewhat correct anchor text. If so then they are a pot of gold, if not then is the pot may be half empty or half full depending upon your point of view.
Red Deer News hound
March 13, 2008

I’ve always wondered about those paid SEO services. Those must be some of the schemes you are talking about. Depending on what type of site you have, it may be hard to find others that are similar to link to. Should a real estate site go for links from the competition, for example?
ckata
March 13, 2008

Other real estate sites would be a great source of high value links – they don’t necessarily need to be direct competitors though. Seek out agents in other markets and link from them!
Roger Lunn
March 16, 2008

Thanks for the insight on automated links the last thing I want is to have Google give me the thumbs down. I’m just starting out and this is good advise
ckata
March 16, 2008

Hey Roger! It’s my pleasure. I’m glad the information is coming in handy.

BTW – I recommend you switch blogger for wordpress – and get your own domain! All of your link building efforts will truly only benefit blogspot.com otherwise.

I’d be happy to answer a bunch of your questions – feel free to call into the office when you get a chance, OK!
Javi
March 17, 2008

I wonder how Google will be able to stop people from going into forums and suggest a link exchange. these are manual link exchanges although sometimes sites will be linking to other sites that are totally unrelated. will somebody who’s just doing a friend some favor actually earn Google’s ire because of this? it’s a tricky thing.
ckata
March 17, 2008

Javi,
There is nothing wrong from our perspective with respect to finding people to link with and linking with them! However, you do have to be careful about it since if they are participating in a link exchange program that receives Googles wrath it’s possible to be negatively affected by that. It’s slim, but it has happened in the past.

So just be careful about who you’re linking to!
Dr SEO
March 17, 2008

Automatic services just don’t give me the results i want. After testing a lot of these i still do my link development by hand.
Partz Partzescu
March 20, 2008

I think Automated link exchanges are better because you can can control what links come to you the bad thing is that you must pay for it.
ckata
March 20, 2008

You’re a brave man! Personally I feel there is too much risk in automated link exchanges especialy given the fact that search engines are slowly begining to crack down on them!
Birmingham PC Repair
March 30, 2008

Do you feel that google will remove all blog sites that do not adhear to their nofollow stratagy… because blog commenting is not really a natural link but thats my opionion
Lee
JACL
April 14, 2008

Surprisingly, in 2008, a lot of so called these so called SEO companies still do reciprocal link exchanges. I agree with you the natural links are the best.
ckata
April 15, 2008

Hey JACL,
There is nothing wrong with exchanging links with another site – but it must not be the only link building you do. In other words, if you want to link to a supplier, and the supplier to you – by all means go ahead. You’ll get a little bit of credit for those links. Automating the process and purely exchanging links with those you do not have any relationship is what does not make sense.

Spark Internet Marketing

Automated Link Exchanges vs Naturally Occurring Links

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