420 Design Blog
Link exchanges set up for their rankings, not yours
08 Jan 2008 | Angie H
This morning I received an email from a company who specializes in SEO (search engine optimization) asking for a link exchange between our design firm and their client, a company specializing in PowerPoint and Flash presentations. Typically we don't do link exchanges for a myriad of reasons, but mainly because I'm not a big fan of them. There's rarely been an instance where the site wanting me to link to them was even remotely interesting enough for us to link to them. And from my limited experience with these link exchange request emails, most of them are out to increase their PageRank or search engine ranking probably because your site is doing well. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I think the issue, for me, anyway, is that, in terms of content, most of these link exchange requests (some of which are automated and bad overall; this one was not) aren't going to help my site, or more importantly, my visitors. Plus, I've always believed that a site should be linked to because it's good for you/your site or your visitors, or better yet, both.
Back to the email I received... I read it twice and skimmed it a couple more times after that. No where in the email did it say what page my link would go on. And what's more, they were requesting specific words and HTML code to be used. That right there was enough to turn me off. As a designer/developer, I like to be able to add links on our site in ways that will not only match our brand, but that are coded correctly. Sure, I could add the link how I want, but here's a little snippet of their request:
Note: Please set up the link as requested below (we need it set up like this before it can be returned. Thanks).
In other words, unless the link to them was written and coded exactly how they asked, there'd be no return link on their site to ours. Hmmm...
So I continued, mainly out of sheer curiosity. Without clicking on any links in the email, I did check 1) the site/company that sent the email and 2) the site I'd be linking to. The company that sent the email is a legitimate SEO company. No problem there really. The irony is that their own PageRank is 2. (Page Rank is measured between 0 and 10. I think only Google is the only site with a PageRank of 10. Go figure.) But knowing that I'd be linking to their client, and not to them, I continued.
I headed over to their client's site and their PageRank is also a 2. I have no way of knowing how new or old this site is so that 2 doesn't mean a whole lot in that context. I clicked around and began to wonder where my link would go in the first place should I choose to accept the exchange. I didn't see any links to anyone, anywhere. And then I spotted it:
A tiny little link at the bottom of the page, in a color that's just a tad difficult to read against the background color, a little link called "links". And there I found the page of links our site would probably end up on. The PageRank on this page? Zero.
Now before I go on and anyone starts freaking out wanting to know about their PageRank and how to increase it, let me say that PageRank shouldn't be all that important to you. Any SEO professional worth a grain of salt will tell you this. PageRank is really a measure of how often your site is being linked to by other high ranking sites. In my experience after about a 4 or 5 PR, it stops mattering. Some sites listed at the top of Google's search results might have a low PR, while others with a high PR will be listed on page 3. Because of that, and other reasons, some SEO experts will tell you that it doesn't matter at all. That's up for debate. But my point here is that PageRank is not the be-all, end-all of search engine optimization. You could almost call it a popularity contest.
That said, having a webpage with a PageRank of 0 link to our site isn't going to do us much good in terms of our own PR. But it really won't do us any good since the link will be sitting on a page that is just hidden enough that it will unlikely get any clicks (let alone go up in PR). Sure, I could do the same, and place their link on a page on our site that rarely gets visited but 1) I'm not that devilish or whatever, and 2) that's not the point.
The point here is that link exchanges aren't what they used to be. In fact, chasing links is time (and likely money) spent that could be more productively used with other SEO strategies that will achieve the same results or better. Link building is not bad in and of itself. In fact, it's part of what helps you get ranked well. But link exchange is not the same as link building. That's where most folks get confused.
In the end, your site's performance on search engines is going to depend on one thing and one thing only: your content. Even if your site has a PageRank of 9, if the quality of your content is poor, or if it hasn't been updated in 3 years, your site's ranking will suffer.