Thread: Google guidelines and Link Trading

So I've been reading the Google webmaster guidelines, and it seems to discourage "trading links." Can anyone else shed some light on this? What are safe and unsafe ways of getting links to your site?

Getting safe links?

Just naturally build your links, don't over do it whilst going on a link campaign, link with related real estate websites, better still don't change links - go all out for one way links as they hold more value in general.

Links from forums (like this one), articles, directories, blogs, etc.

The harder it is to obtain the link in principle holds more value which would probably make sense.

Hey there,

Didn't you hear? Google wants to be the only one that can sell links through their adsense

Okay let me talk about what I have heard about the real issue here.

Google discourages paid links. In fact, they have a utility in the google webmaster tools where paid links can be reported. They also discourage selling links.

So what happens if you get caught? Website penalities. Sometimes if it is bad enough you get thrown back in the sandbox.

When you start your link campaign, you have to make it seem natural. You can not have all your anchor text be the same everytime. That is way too suspicious and crawlers pick up on that. Mix up your anchor text, sometimes even user the plain url as the anchor text.

Google keeps track of the rate websites gain links. If your rate increases too fast, then you may get a penality. It has to seem natural.

People have different views on recipricol links. I am not sure if google sees these links as paid, but you are not going to want more than 100 outgoing links on a single page, or you are going to appear like a link farm.

SEO is a tuff business. Read as much as you can, ask questions in forums like this, and keep up the good work.

Sincerely,
Travis Walters

Work on getting links from blogs,forums, and articles. Try to develop a good blog and place links throughout the blogs posts to your website and other useful websites, so it doesn't look spammy.

Particpate in forums and place your link in your signature.

Write articles and submit them to article submission sites.

Try to write a press release at least once a month.

Like someone said earlier, if you get 1 way links from theme related and authority sites, those are the best.

Good luck!

I don't think that Google will ever penilize you for incoming links. It would be to easy for a competitor to get your site throw into the sandbox. I think the worst they would do is say that links from a paid site have zero value.

You can get good links by blogging, publishing articles on sites like ezine and real estate directories. Mostly it involves a lot of work.

Beside, if you want PR, which is useless IMO, you should leave you site on higher PR page than your own site...
My 2 cents though....

You can do also reciprocals, but try to get best ones in your area (industry). The idea is not to spam.

You can buy links, but G said those must be with "no follow".