The vast majority of web site owners think that exchanging links is only helpful because it can boost their rankings in search engines such as Google.com. They are useful for this purpose because the number of links back to a site is factored into ranking calculations. But, according to WebSideStory's StatMarket Web site optimization service, search engines account for only little more than 13% of an average web site's traffic.

The most important benefit of a link exchange is the traffic resulting directly from these links. That same StatMarket research found that 21% of site visitors get there via links which means the links themselves are more useful than the search engine listings!

Search engines can be unpredictable. Their algorithms change on an ongoing basis. Your site can be in the top 10 results today, but may not be tomorrow.

I'm not saying you should neglect the search engines. However, your main concern should be getting traffic from direct links. Search engine ranking should be your secondary concern.

Furthermore, your links page can serve as an excellent resource for your visitors. As any Internet marketer will tell you, it's the content that makes a successful site. When you provide useful links for your visitors, your site becomes more credible, more helpful, and more likely to be bookmarked for future visits - all of which adds up to a steady stream of traffic.

So how do you identify sites that can send you more direct traffic? Here are some pointers to consider while exchanging links:

1) Look for sites that have good content.

Content is the #1 reason people go online. If a site has good content, it will receive a greater number of repeat visitors.

2) Look for sites that display a prominent link to their links page on the home page as well as on secondary pages.

When I say prominent, I don't mean a link with H1 font size! What I mean is that the link should not be less prominent than the links on rest of the site.

Many webmasters, particularly those who only want links to improve their search engine ranking, will hide their links page or only place it on their home page, somewhere at the bottom with a -1 font size. The most common reason for doing this is a fear of losing visitors, but that fear is absolutely unfounded when you really understand how the Internet works.

Say your web site has a 1% conversion ratio. That means for every 100 visitors that visit your site, you make one sale. Now what about the remaining 99 visitors? They are probably looking for something else. So what do they do? They have 3 possible options:

a) Go back to the previous site they visited.

b) Visit your links page (if you have one), hoping to find the information they are looking for there.

c) End their browsing session.

So which do you think is the best option? I would definitely want my visitors to go to my links page and visit my link partners rather than go back. Why? Because I know that my link partners will send a percentage of their visitors back to my site, thus offsetting any visitor loss.

A visitor exchange of this kind works best when all link partners have a prominent link to their links page on all the pages of their web sites. Visitors are then much more likely to move between the linked sites.

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Some webmasters design their links page for link partners rather than for their visitors!

They use linking text like: "Let's Trade Links", "Trade Links" and so on... These webmasters are usually more interested in finding link partners than in providing information to their visitors. The end result is link partners visiting each other's sites.
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3) Look for sites that have tightly themed and categorized links pages.

Sites that trade links solely for search engine rankings have random collections of links to hundreds of sites with almost every imaginable theme. These links pages are never going to be visited by people looking for additional information. On the other hand, sites that have their links categorized are more user friendly and are more likely to attract visitors.

Conclusion

It is essential to keep your visitors' interests in mind when designing your links page. Looking for, and adding, quality links, without this goal in mind is pointless. You need to start thinking of your links page as a service to your visitors rather than just a means to achieving a higher search engine ranking. Only with this perspective will you be able to make the most of your reciprocal links.