A poster at Poker Affiliate Listings tonight commented that exchanging links was a violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines. I’m always baffled when I see people say things like this, but I guess I should be beyond that now. Mostly it’s because people don’t seem to understand that there’s a difference between “excessive link exchanges” and normal linking back and forth between sites. (Here’s the Google page about link schemes.) At any rate, I have some thoughts about poker link exchange tactics that I’d like to share here.
Avoiding “Excessive” Poker Link Exchange Tactics
How do you define “excessive”? That is the operative word when trying to decide whether or not your poker link exchange tactics are in keeping with Google’s guidelines. Definitions of “excessive” that I found in Google include:
- Beyond normal limits.
- Unrestrained.
- Too big.
A quick look at Thesaurus.com provides you with a couple of antonyms of the word “excessive”:
- moderate
- reasonable
So what kind of poker link exchanges go beyond normal limits? What is an unrestrained poker link exchange strategy? What makes a poker link exchange too big?
What does a moderate poker link exchange strategy look like? What is reasonable in terms of poker link exchanges?
What kind of poker link exchanges go beyond normal limits?
A normal link exchange is where site A links to site B, and site B links back to site A. A triangular link exchange goes beyond normal limits, because site A links to site B, and in return, site C links to site A. Three-way link exchanges aren’t “normal”. People conduct three way link exchanges in a foolhardy effort to fool a search engine into thinking that their site has more one-way links pointing toward it than it really does.
Most poker webmasters think they need a lot more links to rank than they really do, and they also think (mistakenly) that one-way links somehow count more. They couldn’t be more wrong.
I’ve ranked for extraordinarily competitive keyword phrases by doing directory submissions and exchanging links with as few as 15 other sites.
What is an unrestrained poker link exchange strategy?
You demonstrate restraint when you turn down people hitting you up for link exchanges because their site content sucks. You’re using an “unrestrained” poker link exchange strategy when you’re willing to exchange links with any site. Most people who are this eager to exchange links with anyone and everyone are just desperate for links. Search engines are like women; they can smell desperation. And desperation isn’t attractive.
When is a poker link exchange “too big”?
You know your poker link exchange program is too big when you don’t know who owns most of the sites you’re linking to from your “links” page. You know your poker link exchange page is too big when you don’t remember exchanging the link with the other webmaster. You know your poker link exchange page is too big when it becomes useless to an average visitor. If you’re trying desperately to make your link exchanges NOT look like link exchanges, then your link exchange program is too big.
What is a moderate poker link exchange strategy?
Do you know any other webmasters in the industry who you like and respect? Link to their sites, and ask them to link to yours in return. It’s only possible to know a limited number of people in this industry, and you’ll like and respect even fewer of those people than you know.
Do you know of any poker websites that you think are particularly useful? Link to those sites, and ask them to link to your site in return. If they don’t link back to you, don’t pull their link down. If you’re linking to sites for the RIGHT reasons, then you don’t take links down just because someone isn’t linking back to you.
What is a reasonable poker link exchange strategy?
Would you feel comfortable sitting down with Matt Cutts over coffee and explaining why each site that you’ve linked to from your website is worth linking to? If so, then you probably have a reasonable poker link exchange strategy.
If your only reason to link to a site is because they’re linking back to you, then yeah, you’re doing it wrong.
Poker Link Exchange Directory Evaluation
You don’t want to link to just anyone’s site, and you also don’t want to get a link from just anyone’s site. You should look over someone’s poker link exchange directory carefully before discussing a link exchange with them. Are the other sites listed on that page sites you want to be associated with? If you’re listed in the same poker link exchange directories as a dozen other sites which don’t rank well, chances are you won’t rank well either. But if you’re listed in the same poker link exchange directories as a dozen other sites which do rank well…
There’s nothing wrong with a poker link exchange directory, if it’s a good resource, executed in a reasonable and moderate manner.
Poker Link Exchange Scripts
Should you use a poker link exchange script? Using poker link exchange software to manage your link exchange activities is a surefire way to demonstrate that your link swapping activities are neither reasonable or moderate. If you’re excessively trading links, then a script might work well for you. But I don’t think you’ll rank well for long by being excessive.
I’ll write more about how to successfully trade links in the poker industry in a future post. But if you’re looking for additional reading on the same subject now, check these out:
- Building Poker Link Popularity
- Who Else Wants One Way Poker Links?
- How NOT to Get Poker Links
- What is Search Spam? - (This one is from Steve Badger’s excellent poker SEO website.)