Is it true that you should only exchange links with relevant websites?

[Marsha]

This is a great thread... very informative.

[MrCat]

You exchange links to relevant website in your niche not just for PR concerns but for the reason that you are after targeted traffic.

If you are in a niche of auto insurance and you exchange links with a gardening website - what relevance does it serve? NONE! And you don't draw any targeted traffic

[potchie]

noted that this practices are benificial on both parties meaning to say. possibility to have more traffic/visitor. and best ranking. if you link exchange with the related site, visitor seek for much information that can be possible to look out with your site. same thing with your partner.. its either way helping each other.

[lizza]

This is very common topic in the forum and it is the old practice of SEO..Link exchange with relevant sites is the best!!!

[grace029]

Link exchange with relevant site is great just like what others said..
esp. when that "relevant site" has the same topic with your site..
and it can make your visitors go back to your site...

[theawristocrat]

i think it holds more weight if you link from relevant sites.

[redeemer_spawn]

I agree on that one., It was a great great help if your site were linked to those sites which are related/ relevant to your site.,

[x3mario]

You can do link exchange to sites that are not related to yours but the more effective is the one that is relevant to your site.

[ezhel]

it is easier to get more back links when you're site linked with the site relevant to your site.

[x3mario]

Exchanging links to a relevant site can actually help your site in terms of quality backlinks and traffic.

Some people have been telling me that it doesn't matter whether the website you exchange links with is relevant to yours or not.

This why google released their statement about excessive link exchange. Some people did a lot of link exchange to unrelated sites and it's really a link farm. Google penalized those sites doing a link farm.

[bbrock32]

In my experience , link exchange with similiar site has brought me lots of traffic in the long run.However I think that a link is a link , and the only difference is providing good info to your visitors.

[t.analiza011885]

Originally Posted by bbrock32

In my experience , link exchange with similiar site has brought me lots of traffic in the long run.However I think that a link is a link , and the only difference is providing good info to your visitors.

similar site? or with related site?

[Journey]

Exchanging links with other sites that are relevant to your site will certainly help more to get more traffic on your site.

[MajorTom]

The real question is exactly what is a "relevant site" ? Is it a site that is in the exact same nice as yours or is it a site that your visitors might appreciate having a link to ?

I personally find all the restrictions that Google dictates to webmasters are getting a little ridiculous and people aren't building sites for people, they're building them for search engines which is the precise opposite of what Google thinks they're forcing people to do.

Also, depending on your site's nich there could be thousands of relevant niches or only a few so it doesn't make ssense to me if for example, my friend has a video gaming site and wants to link to my music lyrics site or my linux, why it shoulf be technically irrelevant?

As far as linking to "bad neighborhoods" such as casinos or pharmaceuticals, just go search Google and they've been the biggest propietors of links to those "bad neighborhoods".

I wish webmasters would forget about all this SEO stuff and just build sites for human beings and not machines.