Pretty in yer face statement huh? I'll bet there are quite a few folks reading this that advocate swapping links, and seeking "link partners" to ahem... increase their blogs pagerank. Well, let me let you into a little secret: It doesn't work.
Seriously, it's a useless, fruitless waste of time for you, your readers and the poor sods that you hassle in email about a link swap. What's more, there are far, far better things you could be doing with your time if one of your goals is better search engine rankings. First, let me tell you why link swaps are stupid.
Link Swaps are a Waste of Time
Worse than that, they're a stupid waste of time. Here's why:
Google for one, have recently "gone after" link swappers.
That's right, surprise surprise, they just don't like people trying to artificially increase their link counts. In the recent Google update link swapping sites were hit hard, some more than others, but the end result is that after years of knowing these things had a very limited value to start with, most professional search marketers now beleive they have no value.
They Make Your Blog Look Cheap
Seriously, what's to love about a links page? For the most part, it looks like a amateurish directory page to most visitors -- at best. To the more informed, it looks like exactly what it is, a worthless links page.
They Go Against Everything Blogs are About
Yes, they do. Blogs are about conversation, about dialogue with other bloggers and blog readers. About writing great, interesting and timely content -- they're NOT about worthless junk pages. Which is exactly what your links page is when we get right down to it.
And you know what? You're not an "SEO" just because you've read a few articles. That stuff takes years to learn properly, and for those that are good at it, and i mean genuinely good at it as opposed to pretending they are, it means staying on top of ever shifting trends, and increasingly difficult algorithms just to stay informed.
You can't learn that stuff in a week ok?
Erm.. Can You Tell That This Annoys Me?
It does. Mostly because I think what blogs are doing is fantastic, and I love the medium -- i just hate to see bad, ill-informed witch-doctor recipes for disaster masquerading as expert content. I don't want to make a big campaign out of it, but bearing in mind that in my other blog i talk to some of the finest search marketers in world on a daily basis, i think i'd better jump in here just a little bit and tell you guys what you do need to know, and point out what you dont.
So, next post -- What Bloggers Need to Know About Search Engines
