Getting links to your website is critical but there are some guidelines that should be followed for successful Reciprocal Linking. In addition, a lot of website owners are becoming particularly choosey as to who they link with, and they cannot be blamed for this. Linking to good quality websites is paramount.

So where does that leave website owner with a low to average Google Page Ranking?

We will presume for just a moment that your website has an overall Google Page Ranking of between 0 and 3 (out of a possible 10). How can you improve this so that you have a better chance of getting good quality reciprocal links?

Link exchange is not only thing that helps increase your Website Page Ranking. It is a combination of a number of factors, such as :

* Great relevant content. * Designed to keep visitor interested and informed. * Meta Tags should be well optimized. * Keyword density * Frequently updating content.

There is a lot of free information regarding page ranking - just put "google page ranking" in Google search bar for more details on this topic.

Back to Linking!

Developing a good Links Page on your website takes a lot of effort to start off, especially if you are doing it manually and not using a Link Program.

You need to plan and organize your time so that you can evaluate possible link partners thoroughly. You should check their website to ensure it is of high quality, providing relative information and products to your website theme.

There are a few schools of thought regarding linking to "competitor" websites, some feel it is not a good thing.

However, personally I don't believe it to be detrimental as long as your website offers top quality information and products. After all a little bit of competition helps keep us on our toes. Whether shopping online or offline, people usually browse for bargains or best quality before making a purchase.

But did you know that publishers can do a similar thing within article itself? They can turn any word within your article into an ad! They use programs like TextLinkAds to turn select target keywords into hyperlinks to advertiser's website. When a reader clicks on a link, advertiser's website opens within same window. In other words, page is 'hijacked' and your article disappears!

Gasp! As authors, we spend a lot of time planning and writing content designed to hold reader's attention. Surely we should condemn anything which hijacks our audience?

The answer to that question is most definitely, “NO!”

As a heavy Internet user, I'm personally not a fan of text link ads. However, as an author of free reprint articles, I think they're great. Before I explain why, though, let's cover off a few basics...

Text link ads – some FAQs

Like every other form of advertising, text link ads have their detractors. The most common questions asked are:

Q: How can I tell if it's a text link ad? A: Although text link ads look same as text links, you can identify them very quickly simply by mousing (hovering) over them. When you hover over a text link ad for about a second, a popup displays details of advertiser and ad content. Check out this example.

Q: Are they ethical? A: Text link ads are more covert than regular pay-per-click ads like Google AdWords. They look like normal text links, but they don't actually jump where you expect them to. For example, I clicked on a text link ad with anchor text “MSN” expecting it would take me to MSN's search, but instead it took me to website of some sort of SEO service provider. As we all know, it's quite common for people to link to their site using unrelated anchor text. That's all text link ads are doing. So, by nature, text link ads are no more misleading than any other kind of link.