What Is A Link Exchange?
Link exchange is the practice of exchanging links with other websites to manipulate search engine rankings. Also known as reciprocal linking.
The terms are not identical because reciprocal linking commonly refers to a link swap between two sites, while a link exchange usually involves linking three or more websites together. For example, website A links to website B, and website B links to website C.
The link exchange practice is utilized to artificially increase a website’s authority and establish higher popularity and trust for the domain and web page receiving the link, which are factors search engine ranking algorithms use to rank websites in the search engines.
Link exchanges are considered a violation of Google’s guidelines and can result in penalties. Google’s algorithms are trained to detect link schemes and participating in a link exchange is a risky behavior for SEO.
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Go to the SEO Glossary to find more terms and definitions that relate to the field of search engine optimization.
The Editorial Staff at SEO Chatter is a team of search engine optimization and digital marketing experts led by Stephen Hockman with more than 15 years of experience in search engine marketing. We publish guides on the fundamentals of SEO for beginner marketers.
