Inbound links are a great tool when it comes to search engine optimization. When used correctly, they will help in the attainment of a good Google rank for your website, i.e., to have your site better positioned in the results that people around the world will get when they do a search in Google for a product or service like the one you are promoting online.
The three main types of link trade in use today are one-way, two-way (or, reciprocal link exchange) and three-way.
One Way Links
1-way links are the most valuable ones because Google sees them as an indication that your site is good enough to get other webmasters interested in linking to it without asking for anything in return. If those incoming links have a good Google PR (Page Rank), then you will get an even bigger boost from them.
The drawback with this is, if you are just starting online and/or have so far little presence on the Web, it will not be easy to find someone willing to give you a one-way link, especially if it comes with a good PR. If that's the scenario you're facing, it will take time -- sometimes lots of it -- to develop the necessary marketing experience and the consequent online mark that will make your site more attractive in other webmaster's eyes.
Two Way Links
On the other hand, reciprocal link exchanges were very popular before, since it was not so difficult to find website owners to give you something if they knew they would get the same value back.
Today, however, although still in use, they are not assigned so much value anymore because lots of people set out to do it, which raised a red flag at Google and led them to change their page ranking algorithm in order to avoid a distortion in the system's results.
Therefore the two-way link swap is no more the top dog it used to be in Internet Marketing.
Three Way Links
That leads us to the third option in the game, which is the 3-way linking system. When done the right way, it has significant advantages over the first two types and none of their setbacks.
This kind of link trade is better achieved through a link building service, where you pay a monthly fee to be a member of a network of websites. Once in (and if their system is set in a proper way), you start to give and receive links in a triangular way, like this: A > B > C > A
where site A links to site B, which links to site C, which then links to site A, closing the circle. That way, all three websites get a valuable one-way link and a nice push towards a good page rank at Google.
A well-built 3-way link exchange system will comprise a good number of different niches, not just a few. This way, you will have many options to choose from.
The websites accepted for membership in the network should have valuable content in order to provide a good return for all the parts involved, especially for the persons doing their searches in Google.
Such a system will also take good care of the following aspects to keep Google from discounting or ignoring your backlinks:
- Link Text Variety - Use of different keywords of your choice for different groups of inbound links.
- Geographic Diversity - Incoming links from an extensive region in the country or, better yet, in the world.
- Steady Growth - Slow, natural growth in the number of external links pointing to your site, instead of all at once.
- Theme Consistency - General theme of the websites linking to you always a match to your site's theme.
- Content Filtering - No links to or from sites that many people, both in the network and among Google customers, might find not desirable (adult sites, gambling, religion etc).
Finally, it should be a system where technology takes care of everything and makes it a set-and-forget thing, therefore freeing you to concentrate on creating additional content that will further increase your income.
So while you make your way through the Internet Marketing's natural learning curve towards your Top 10 website, a 3-way linking system could well be a good option to help you achieve faster initial results.
Contributor: Paul Fields is an Internet marketer with a focus on the research of products and technologies developed to facilitate the achievement of online success. To know about a service that delivers on the high quality standards recommended in this article, just click the following link: 3-way link exchange system.
