Link exchange, more often known as 'Reciprocal link exchange', is defined as the practice of exchanging links with other websites. There are innumerable methods of conducting link exchanges, the simplest of which would be advertising. Link exchanges are often made by getting the permission of a popular website owner to include a link in his links page. The aim of all those who exchange links is to increase the traffic in their sites. Benefits of link exchange

The main advantage of link exchange is that link exchange improves the link popularity and in turn increases the search engine rankings. Major renowned search engines like Google and Inktomi rank pages on the basis of content as well as link popularity. It is a shame if a site is not listed in Google and those web pages that are not listed in Google are called part of the 'Invisible web'. Link exchanges results increase traffic in a site, since Link exchange helps gain more visitors from link partners. Link exchanges can also lead to cross market agreements and affiliate programs.

The best way to be listed among the top ranked sites of major search engines is by exchanging links with theme related websites. Though the relevance of a website is determined using PageRank by Google, the number of pages having links towards the site, the contents of the page and the pages linked to it are more important. Link exchange helps a lot in increasing the relevance of a site. Link exchange with relevant websites using keywords as anchor text, improves search quality since the search engines evaluate the people and site linking to the web page too. Themed link exchange is the best way to increase link popularity since relevant content will be contribute to market space, reflecting the site in search engines.

Inadequate link exchange practices A very important factor that you should beware of during link exchange is from being scammed or played tricks on by webmasters. You must always make sure that the link that has been exchanged with a webmaster is not placed in an inaccessible page. It is always preferable to exchange links with those pages that has a direct link in their home page to their links page, without which the search engine spiders will not spot the link. After link exchange, double check whether the link in the exchanged site is a valid one, which contributes a PageRank to the site. Another pitfall to look out for during link exchange is a 'nofollow' tag, which tells search engines not to follow the link. It is always safe to avoid linking with sites that are banned by search engines, since they can bring a detrimental effect to the rank of the site. It is also important to avoid having unvaried anchor texts for a link, dur ing link exchange since search engines take this lack of variety to be a result of artificial link popularity.

Link exchange has the ultimate aim of sharing information, thus serving the purpose for which the Web was created, which is to share information with everyone who is connected