Is link exchange a waste of time?

[Stephan]

I think today LE is a waste of time. I have about 1.9 Million links counted in Google webmaster tools to my site sniperflashgames.com. The site is #1 – 3 for sniper flash games, but not much more for other KW. So why to exchange links if it’s not helping in SERP? At least I don’t see any change!

If I look at BF, the site has some links counted in but is with much more KW #1, actually I get more SE traffic to BF as I get to SFG.

I think the only thing who counts today is a good content to get a high position. This would explain for me also the problem with SFG, there are not so many sniper games to have a different content as other game sites.

What you guys think about this?

Regards
Stephan

[Jason C]

Im starting to agree with this also. If you look at sites high up in SERPS, they have very few (if any) out bound links from trades. From what Ive been reading, google is giving more weight to links within blog posts. If you're looking for serp movement, of course you need the good content, but contact bloggers and have them blog about your site, or your games.

[Geo3kant]

I think a big factor could be (im no expert) is that we have such little content.. it's only a small a description.
And on top of that our whole page is filled with "online games" keywords and gaming alt tags, so the keyword density on your keywords that you'd like to rank high for might be less than the general keywords on those pages.

You could test if you put 300-500 words on a page about the game with good kw density if you would do better in google.
On linkbuilding, i don't know why you would rank bad.. do you get quality backlinks? Or noname directories?

[RickyG]

A link ANYHERE is a good thing!

Yes, you might rate high for some KWs but......
How did you get there?
How did it come up in the ranks?
Did LE help in PR?
Does a hungry spider come from another site thru that LE?
Did a new user come in from that SE?
Did that user click a $ banner?
Will the spiddy help with other KW or game you have?
How do you keep SERPS happy and maintain?


Answer these and you have answered lifes answers

RIckyG

@Stephan

I have about 1.9 Million links counted in Google webmaster tools to my site

Lets say ONE of the LE you do is sitewide. That site has 1-2K games/pages. Take away the LE ya doing and take away 1-2K backlink soon. Keep that going and soon>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[RickyG]

O YA...content comment

Contentt is key also for the hungry spiders.....BUT

The content must be rich with KW and text that a search user will use when doing searches. Put yourself as the user. Sit in front of the big G and do searhes like a user would. Study who is there and read what the G has captured for content blrb.


Here is a case in point.

Go to google.com
use KWs arcade banner exchange

Where is Mibbi? I bounce from #2-#3....how you ask? Look at what the G has in the blurb in bold
Mibbi ended up there with little effort.
Enough hints
RickyG

[gubugnet]

backlinks are still useful it is just that you need quality over quantity and you need a variety of anchors to catch a variety of KW. Also KW density ( including LSI ) and other on site SEO stuff needs to be there on the pages to get you ranked. You can rank for KW with 80 - 90% less backlinks if you get your On site stuff on point like the big guy and Geo3kant are saying. Personally I like 400 words or more on page. Also you got to look at your link structure and do more than just reciprocal stuff because Big G has taken some weight off those now.

NOTE: I had about a 12 page book for this post but I tried to condense it there and still make the really important stuff stand out. Now it is short but I promise if you take it to heart it will help with your SEO a lot. IMO guys are working to hard now and blindly copying each other using nifty software when getting back to basics can work just as well or better.

[cheekugames]

Link exchanges are still very important, your site sniperflashgames will catch up on other keywords sooner or later thanks to the millions of links you have, in any case , its not going to hurt in any way ...so better to have link exchanges then not .

Cheeku

[Jason C]

You know what I think the issue is? Since you trade a lot of traffic with SFG, you get placed on the top referrers list on many trade sites which in turns gives you sitewide backlinks. Most trade sites has thousands of games. One problem is that most of those links are indirect links. Google still counts these as backlinks but Im not so sure as to how much weight is given links (if any at all) since its not technically a hardlink and I assume carries about as much weight as "no-follow" links but still a backlink is a backlink and they count for something.

But everything Ive been reading lately in regards to seo is google is now giving more weight to links placed with-in the body of articles on blogs. Or better yet, bloggers blogging about your website.

[Stephan]

I make some tests + calculations and let you know the results

[coolgame24]

So why don't you keep a WP blog exclusively for all your arcade sites?