Link exchanges are great way to achieve visibility for your website but they can also be a monumental waste of time, effort, and money if you are not taking advantage of link tracker technology.
For webmasters not familiar with exchanging links, they are a basic technique whereby you display another website’s link on your website in return for your link on their site. There are even large link exchange programs available where a website can exchange their link with multiple partners. However, for websites that are just starting out the easiest and most common way to exchange links is to find websites that target similar niches and email them the proposition.
It is all rather simple except for one common problem that has always plagued the process. There is no guarantee that the backlink to your site will stay live. Every webmaster who works for link exchanges will have to deal with this at least once. A webmaster will agree upon a link exchange and within days, that link will disappear. A webmaster can verify these links personally but as the number of exchanges grows, this becomes tedious at the very least and eventually unpractical.
The solution to this problem is a type of software called a link tracker. A link tracker is a database of your link exchanges that also automates the process of verifying all of those backlinks. Using this tool, you can know within moments exactly which of your exchanges is defunct. When you have a large network of link exchanges, screen real estate is money.
Another great benefit from link tracking is that it provides you with the page rank of the webpages hosting your backlink. This is crucial for webmasters that pay for a link or link exchange. It lets you know if the cost is offset by the visibility, you are receiving in return. It also allows you to prioritize your link exchanges, which is invaluable information to have as your network grows and prime screen real estate becomes scarce.
Effectively utilizing link tracker technology allows webmasters to control their SEO efforts. Why waste another moment improving the visibility of your site without a guarantee that it is paying dividends?