When Link Exchanges are NOT link Exchanges

[MKInfo]

I have been meaning to write about this for a while but haven't been on much lately.
I think we need a new section very badly for people asking for link exchanges using these referring scripts etc.
A link exchange is exactly what it says.You put my link on your site and I put yours on mine..........end of story.
What these scripts are in fact comes under the name of TRAFFIC EXCHANGES and as such we should have a section just for them.
I am sick of wasting my time reading posts,pming etc only to find people are using these scripts.
No disrespect to peeps using them but THEY ARE NOT LINK EXCHANGES.
Please vote in the poll.

[jeremy860]

I would'nt say they are not link exchanges because you still get your PR Value most of the time unless they throw "nofollow" into there script.

The whole point of a link exchange has always been for both traffic and SEO, although I know with alot of these scripts, they are programmed to automatically delete your link if you dont send them a certain amount of visitors, for example, I have mine set so if you dont send at least 2 uniques every 5 days then you will get deleted. Which is good because obviously if you dont send any traffic then you must have a low traffic site and most likely some weak PR , so then its not even worth to have your link on my site anyway.

[Dale]

Exactly. Good points there. I don't even exchange with people using those scripts anymore. I'll check back and see my link isnt showing up. Totally ridiculious.

[MKInfo]

I am not saying they are a bad thing.Just that they should not be in the link exchange section.

[dumb-diddy-doo]

RE MKinfo: Omg Quit Reading My Mind! =)

[NYCBORN]

I'm getting tired of these traffic exchanges. I won't do them anymore without a nofollow. More than half the time you get jerked.

[layoutsmachine]

I voted yes and I agree with you. I have experienced same problem.

[dumb-diddy-doo]

I totally agree there is a difference.

I to have experienced this with being removed as many of you have. But I also found for new sites, there was very little benefit. If you dont have traffic, then your not going to get any in return. It actually benefits them more if you are using a site wide link to them. Sure there is the claim of PR benefits, but prove there was any PR advantage to any paticular link script you signed up for. Not to mention, how many people verify the PR of the link page itself if thats where you will spend your time?

Not my thing, I understand some people enjoy them and praise the use of them, it's just not my thing. I either "exchange links" or purchase link spots.

*shrugs*

[Jen]

I totally agree.

Here I was requesting link exchanges with some and now after I did a link check almost half doesn't even have my link on their site anymore.

Frustrating...

[Cyclops]

Some of these traffic exchange programs can actually hurt you in Google, I notice some of them are on a rotating script, so one time Googles spiders see your link, another time it's gone, if this process repeats a few times then Google will act as if it's a paid link exchange and will hit your site with a penalty.

But for the big site that use these scripts it's win win for them, they receive more traffic overall and also receive the benefits of having all those smaller sites links permanently in place which means they receive all the SEO benefits.

Good for the big sites with the scripts, not so good for the smaller ones.

[Ad disengaged]

I agree. These scripts are a bad deal for smaller sites. I only offer hard link exchanges and for this reason.

[geg2]

Smaller sites would get more SEO benefits by link exchanging with other smaller sites via hard links than with sites using these scripts.

If you have a small site, your site won't even show up as a link for the search engine spiders since these scripts tend to list only the top 10, 20, or 50 referrers. So if your site isn't listed when Googlebot comes crawling, then you get zero SEO benefits.

[minnseoelite]

I think me and you previously discussed this awhile back MK and I am with you traffic exchanges should be separate since 90% of the time they offer no real link value since most of them either rotate on and off the pages depending on your traffic or use a redirect which passes no value and is not really fair since alot of sites will offer a hard link in return not knowing any better.

[MKInfo]

Will we get another section then or something?If its a script exchange it at least should be in the post title.
It's hard enough finding decent exchanges (maybe my standards are too high LOL) but trawling through posts only to find they use these scripts is rather annoying not to say time wasting.
I really can't see what benefit you get from these 1:1
AND I find it very hard to believe that any webmaster would send you two for one over the long term.

[lyzyrdgyzyrd]

Another cheesy scenario I've encountered a few times recently is folks who will say "sure, let's trade links! here's the URL to my banners, use whichever one you like!". After putting their link up in one of my sitewide panels, then checking their site for my link a few times and not seeing it, I inquire, and they say "oh, your link is on this page: (url provided)". They bury one text link on one page that is buried somewhere in the bowels of their site. Chiselers.