I had an email exchange with an SEO client today after his webmaster called him pushing reciprocal linking software (when all this web designer was after was to generate some extra work from a client that hasn't needed him for awhile). Then that client called me after he received my email de- nouncing software, fully convinced by a follow-up phone call from his web designer that reciprocal linking soft- ware WAS valuable.

He had been assured that spamming, er - I mean, linking software, would increase his visiblity for an inside page on a hot topic currently in news. He didn't want to hear my unpopular opinion that reciprocal linking is DEAD! Halloween is over people! We don't need mummies of yesterdays' linking schemes haunting our Thanksgiving too! Oh, it must be a Thanksgiving TURKEY! A reciprocal Linking Turkey! Can reciprocal linking Santa's be far behind? OK, I'll drop holiday metaphors.

I tried in vain to convince this client that he didn't need that software for his review of new Myriad Pictures flm, "Kinsey" about early sex educator Professor Alfred Kinsey. We had just that morning distributed a press release online which is now posted on over 100 high visibility news sites and Yahoo news picked it up!

These are hugely valuable ONE WAY inbound links that will vastly improve his search engine ranking immediately due to topical nature and excellent timing of release. This client is a sex educator and runs an educational web site about sex and love. His press release put down idea of use of new Intrinsa© testosterone patch to cure low sexual desire of post-menopausal women and praised new film Kinsey. He'll be top ranked for two highly desirable and valuable (to him and his web site) keyword phrases within week.

By way, I HIGHLY recommend this approach for those with newsworthy issues they want to promote to press. will send your newsworthy press release to over 100 top news sites, hundreds more radio, television and newspaper reporters, and tons of journalists who have signed up to receive them. Ereleases.com is syndicated by major news organizations and you can gain hundreds of links while generating interviews and even television appearances, all for only $400! Some people will pay that much for worthless reciprocal linking software and installation by webmasters having a slow week. ;-) Back to our story...

I re-affirmed my opposition to use of software as we ended our call and he hung up disappointed because he wanted my support and assurance that sales pitch he got from his web designer on reciprocal linking software was accurate and that it would do more for him than this press release.

Link popularity is ultimate parameter in achieving supreme exposure on web for your web site. Link popularity is measured by number and quality of inbound links to your site. Inbound links help to attain high search engine rankings for your web site, while producing an invaluable traffic stream from visitors clicking through on links themselves. But your goal will remain unrealized unless you implement an intelligent link exchange strategy.

At same time you should not go overboard in quest of getting more and more links. Quality should not be sacrificed at cost of quantity. You should utilize your link exchange process so that it can win high quality links (which are links from websites that are complementary to your business and have high page ranks) for your web site, not abundant unproductive links.

Considering inbound links to your web site are a decisive factor for improved search engine ranking, you have to make sure that your incoming links are of similar theme. The companies that you link to should offer a product or service that is complementary to yours, however not in competition. Irrelevant links will not fulfil your objective.

Increased and Targeted Traffic

Effective link exchange can attract larger, quality and targeted traffic to your web site. The link exchange process helps you establish innumerable fruitful partners with other relevant web sites. Thus, you can win more quality and targeted visitors from your link partners. According to a June 2003 Forrester Research survey report, '59% of Internet consumers find web sites through links from another site'.

Enhanced Visibility