How to choose a good link partner
Updated
A link exchange ties your site to another one. Before you send or accept a request, spend five minutes on the other site. This checklist tells you what to look for.
The checklist
- Is it about the same thing, or something close? The best partners serve the same visitors as you, without competing head-on: a wedding photographer and a wedding venue, a running blog and a sports physiotherapist.
- Would you recommend it to your own visitors? This is the most important question. If the answer is no, the link does not belong on your site, whatever the other site offers in return.
- Is the site alive? Recent content, working pages, a contact page, and a design from this decade. A site nobody maintains may disappear, and your link with it.
- Where would your link go? Ask, or look at where the site links out now. A relevant article or a short resources page is good; a page with hundreds of links, or a footer on every page, is not.
- Who else does it link to? A site that links to casinos, pills and loan sites next to its own topic is selling links. Your link would end up in bad company.
- Is it safe to visit? The site should load over https without browser warnings, and without pop-ups or unexpected downloads.
- Same language and audience? A link is only useful when your visitors can read the other site.
Red flags: walk away
- The site exists mostly to collect links, with thin pages and little real content.
- You are asked to use a specific keyword as anchor text on every link.
- You are asked to pay, or to join a network of sites that all link to each other.
- The partner wants your link on every page of your site.
Finding partners on Linkorado
Browse the directory to the category of your site, or search for your topic. Each listing shows a screenshot, a description and the category, so you can judge a site before you visit it. When a request comes in, run through the checklist above: you are free to decline any request.