Link EXCHANGE thread (websites, not Etsy shops)

Posted by Hilary Johnson on February 20, 2008 at 4:45pm in General Indie Discussion

Lots of folks have been listing links on the other thread, but seriously, it's not going anywhere in terms of getting our shops/sites to show up on search engines.

The BIG search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc) send spiders and crawlers and other colorfully labelled bots to go all over the web collecting data. All that data is brought back to a central hub and run through algorithms that would take most of us a lifetime to decipher and comprehend, unless there's some high-level mathematicians amongs us ... y'all would shrug and say: "What's so hard about that?"

What's neat about the bots is that when they see a link in the data they are gobbling up, they spawn another spiderling/crawler to check out that link. Cool!

But, always a but ... if we want our websites to show up higher in the search engine heaps (and for the jewelry artists among us that's one huge heap) we need more inbound links. LOTS of inbound links. And many of the SEO astute will tell you they need to be quality inbound links.

That's what we can do for one another. Those of us who have a website and/or blog can lend a helping hand. It's called reciprocal linking. I link to you, you link to me. AND LINK TO EACH OTHER. Either on a blog or on a website, it doesn't matter. On a blog, the link list can go to the bottom of the right or left hand column. On a website, a separate Links page can be added (it's very helpful if your Links page is linked from your home page .... gotta give those spiderlings a boost).

It doesn't have to be pretty, unless you want to make it pretty. It doesn't matter if humans visiting your page link to me or whoever else. What matters is that the spider/crawler sees the link. They love links. They live for links. Links help them live. They gobble links!

So, shall we exchange links? Please don't list your link unless you're willing to go the distance. Copying and pasting other's links to your site/blog is going to be work. But if everyone makes an honest effort to RECIPROCATE, we'll all be towards the top of the search engine by next year (hopefully).

There's other things to consider to optimize your site for search engines to notice, but those are topics for other threads.

Those who only have an Etsy shop, don't worry about linking here. Etsy is already well-optimized. Just make sure all your descriptions and your shop title (what's under your banner) is rich with keywords.

Tags: links, seo

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Marla on March 25, 2008 at 8:18am: oops sorry you did say no etsy sites!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Corinne Sullivan on March 21, 2008 at 8:40pm: Check out my website art project/ experiment related to this:
http://daydreamartstudios.com/greatartgrid.aspx

I also have a flat out links page, with a graphic for those who like "pretty" links pages (like me);
daydreamartstudios.com/coollinks

Anyone interested can count me in, and participate in this project.

Corinne; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by 27lauriebethbeggin on March 21, 2008 at 9:18pm: I'd love to know how you generate a flat out links page....seperate from your blog??? I'll check yours out in the morning. I'M ready to fall over!!!! Thanks though. I'm in.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by The wishing Star on March 22, 2008 at 10:00am: I just started my blog a couple of days ago so it's still kinda in construction. I'm going to start adding links to everyone who's posted so far. This is a great idea. Here's mine TheWishingStarJournal.Blogspot.com; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by 27lauriebethbeggin on March 22, 2008 at 10:20am: I'll get you on mine now! Welcome....; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by The wishing Star on March 22, 2008 at 10:47am: Ok everyone, I posted everyone's links who has posted in this thread. If i missed anyone please let me know.
I love this.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by 27lauriebethbeggin on March 22, 2008 at 11:09am: Thank you!!!! Your site is lovely!! Laurie B.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by All Chic on March 22, 2008 at 6:24pm: Thank you! You're up on mine now, too. Good luck with your new blog!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by lindsay on March 25, 2008 at 5:37am: anyone want to swap links. mine is a rock clothing mail order store??
http://www.organisedkaosclothing.co.uk; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by All Chic on March 25, 2008 at 7:34am: Hi Lindsay - I've got you listed already. Go to http://www.allchic.com and click on Linking Friends (the tab at the top of the page).

My link is:

http://www.allchic.com
All Chic - It's all about Street Fashion

Thank you and have a great day!

Cathy; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Golcar House on April 1, 2008 at 3:43pm: hi there, I've added your link to my site and here's mine if you'd like to do the same..

www.golcarhouse.com

Golcarhouse is an independent design studio producing silk screen prints, printed textiles, eco friendly bags & hand made accessories. Many of our items are limited edition print runs or one off designs...

cheers,
Carol.; ▶ Reply to This