I get offers quite often from people and companies that want to exchange links from my site to theirs and visa versa. There are many facets to link exchange that are good and bad, but today I want to write one that you may not of thought of – the transfer of equity.

One of the key components to growing search engine position is link building. Link building can be done through a mutual exchange of links with a supplier or manufacturer, through the distribution of a digital press release and through search engine and directory submission. These are common practices today, as is the one I will highlight next.

I am approached almost daily by individuals who want me to link to their website. This link building technique is problematic for a couple of reasons. First, Google and the other engines consider a link valuable if it:

• has contextual relevance to the subject matter of the page and site
• if the PageRank of the site is equal to or greater than the linked to site

Let’s think about those points for a moment.

Relevance
Relevance does matter. If I am a body shop linked to a plumber does that add any value to my reader? In most cases the answer is no. In fact it could almost be seen as a spammy technique of linking. So avoid it unless your page is about the “quality businesses I endorse.”

PageRank
PageRank is a huge topic for another post, but let me summarize. PageRank is a 0 -10 value Google create to enumerate “how valuable your website is in context to others like it. But it goes deeper. In fact, each page on your site has its own PageRank because Google looks at each page as an entry point. Although you home page will often be higher ranked than others, it is not uncommon on university websites or large corporate websites to find a deep internal page with a very high PageRank due to the specific topic of focus. (Example)

So these foundational elements are good, but the main reason I am posting is that I want you to understand the ethical and dare I say “legal” implications of linking to sites that are untrusted.

My Take – and it’s just my opinion.
When you link your company’s website to another site of which you have no knowledge you open yourself up to liability. A link is somewhat of an endorsement of services – of equity. I, Joe business owner, find this website and therefore the company and its people to be of a caliber that I would endorse them.

To some of you this may seem like a stretch, but I know as I look at my best practices in my business that I cannot quantify the value of that link when weighed against the liability so I simply don’t do it. I will link to my clients, I will link to my trusted business relationships, and I link to foundations and non-profits for which I have high regard, but I very rarely will say yes to a link exchange unless the person or company can instill confidence in me.

Thanks for the visit. I hope this helps you make better business and link building decisions!