SEO : Link EXchange Dangerous ?

[Raspie]

Hi all,

That Link Exchanging is usefull for SEO, that we all know... That you have to be carefull with whome you exchange, that we know too... But recently I saw a message somewhere that if you add to much exchanges at the time you can be red-flagged and even be deleted from Search Engines... Especially Google should uphold this activity. The reason they mention is: If you suddenly start adding to much links at the time, they presume that you are 'spamming'.

Is this true? And if it is... What is ment by 'to much links at the time' ? How many links in which period could be considered as safe ?

Thanks.

[sarahk]

There's no clear answer on that and the search engines will take in other factors.

Example: On the evening before Bush (I think it was) announced his running partner in the last USA election the sign writers were busy putting the decals on the side of the plane. A guy who had been working on his own plane wandered past and saw the first few letters being put on, when he returned security had been stepped up. He went home and blogged about it on his idle, and little read blog. Somehow it got picked up and when he checked the next day his stats were through the roof and he had inbound links galore.

Deserves to be banned for a sudden and dramatic rise in inbound links? No.

And that's the problem the search engines have - recognising (without human intervention) when the links are because of some extraordinary event and when it's because you've been on a spammy link building binge.

You should not, however, be banned. Your links should just be discounted. Otherwise you'd have a great weapon to use against your competitors.

[freetraff]

From what I saw on personal experience with my sites and site of my clients on reciprocal link building - under 100 links per week is more than safe.

What is better.

Links must be relevant.
Links should better be on nice PR pages.
Links should be on trusted resources.

The last issue is the most important and gossiped. After reading Colin McDougall's VEO report I saw that he also claims for Google to rely a lot on the trusted resources. So, even if you get tons of links within a short period of time from TRUSTED resources - no problems at all, even if these resources are irrelevant to your niche (yes, I told this scary word, it was not an illusion).

The biggest problem is what exactly sources are relevant. Because Google is not likely to share that info. Only hints. For example, Yahoo is *reported* to be included to trusted sources, USAToday, majors in different spheres of life.