Are you thinking of trading links or swapping guest posts for a bit of SEO “link juice”? Here’s why you should consider going beyond a 1-for-1 exchange, and what to do instead.
First of all, what do I mean by “link juice”. This is just a cute way of describing a backlink, which is a link from another website to yours. Backlinks help search engines like Google determine how valuable your web page is in its ranking algorithm.
Quantity of links is important, but quality matters more. That is to say, the more reputable websites that link to yours, the better. So just because you can find lots of free or cheap backlinks, does not mean you should go for them all.
You can get punished for bad link juice and cheating
But Google’s ranking algorithm can also tell when website owners are trying to game the system. This can look like a 1-for-1 exchange: Website A links to Website B, and B back to A. It also looks especially suspect to Google when those links appear around the same time, and occur in a similar context (i.e. in an article or on a links page).
This is why I advocate for a tridirectional exchange. Website A gives a link to Website B, B gives a link to C, and C gives a link to A. In this scenario, three websites have gained a boost to their SEO by getting backlinks. But it looks less suspicious to Google.
The last thing you want is Google punishing you for your effort in building links to your website.
What do you think? Is this something you would try?
If you’re new to the topic of SEO for your business website, I have an article explaining how it works.
If you have any Google Search-related questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
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