Website owners and webmasters who are trying to improve
their search engine ranking by trading links with other sites
should beware of being cheated. Beware of link cheating. What
is link cheating?
Link cheating is when the other party in a link exchange
does not live up to the bargain and does not add your link to
his site. Link cheating can happen when you add someone else's
link on your site first, then submit your link info, and
assume that they will reciprocate and add your link to their
site. What often happens is they don't add your link. And you
end up with a one-way link, giving a link and getting none in
return, improving someone else's search engine ranking and not
yours. Link cheating. Even worse, you end up wasting a lot of
your valuable webmaster time and energy for nothing. And,
often, you won't even know it. You may not know you are the
victim of link cheating or may not find out your link was
never added to the other site until weeks or months later!
Because link cheaters don't email you telling you your link
has been added to their site and they don't email you telling
you they have decided not to add your link (for whatever
reason). They will just take advantage of the one-way benefit
of you linking to them. Link cheating.
How can you protect yourself from link cheating? As a
webmaster, protecting yourself from link cheating is very time
consuming and frustrating. Of course, you can check every site
you linked to and see if your link has been added to that
site. This is very time consuming, even with a "link checker"
tool, and you may not find your link even if it is there! Or,
if you don't find your link you can follow up with a polite
email. And, if you don't get a response within a week or two,
you can remove their link from your website. Unfortunately, by
then you've been promoting the other site(s) for a month or
more and getting zero in return. Link cheating.
Link cheating costs trusting webmasters, trying to build
their website ranking, a lot of time and a lot of irritation.
A lot of time adding links, submitting links, checking links
and, ultimately, a lot of irritation removing links which
don't reciprocate. One website owner became so fed up with
link cheating (20 times in 2 weeks) that he changed his
reciprocal link policy. DestinyFinders.com no longer will add
a link to their site unless their link is added first, and
confirmed to them by email. They promise to then add your link
provided it is deemed suitable and acceptable. And they will
no longer be a victim of link cheating, by avoiding sites who
force you to use those automated
you-go-first-but-we-don't-have-to-reciprocate link management
programs. Many of these are good programs but they are being
abused by bad webmasters.
As for the link cheaters, in the interest of internet
honesty and fair play, webmasters who offer a reciprocal link
exchange should abide by the agreement. If someone links to
you you should honor the link exchange and reciprocate. That
means adding the other party's link to your site. Or, if you
have decided not to reciprocate at least have the professional
courtesy to email the other party stating that their link has
not been accepted.
Link cheating is reaching epidemic proportions and appears
to be on the rise. And there appears to be no easy cure. But
here's some good advice for website owners and webmasters who
wish to trade links ... beware ... be aware ... and don't
cheat.
Maya Pinion is a freelance writer and contributing editor
for News4Net.
DestinyFinders.com is credited with coining the term "link
cheating".
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