Most people agree that a good and free way of getting traffic to your site is by exchanging links (reciprocal linking) with fellow webmasters. This is also agreed to be a good way for moving up the search engine results page for your chosen keywords.

However webmasters are often confused as to which sites they should exchange links with. Many read that incoming links from websites that have the same keywords result in higher rankings with the search engines. This often results in webmasters setting up reciprocal links with websites that are in direct competition with their own.

Now take just 30 seconds to think of any successful business that hosts advertisements for their competitors. Does the Coca-Cola website link to Pepsi? Does Ford’s website link to Daimler-Chrysler’s? No of course they don’t, so why would your website link to one in competition (unless they paid you a big fat check for the privilege).

So who should you exchange links with? Try and get inside the mind of the people you want to visit your site, your ideal targeted visitor. What would they be interested in as well as your product?

For example, let’s assume that you own a website that sells gold watches. You could link to other watch selling sites but as detailed above it could actually harm your site by taking prospective customers away.

Before deciding which sort of sites to trade links with you need to think of the sort of people that are going to be interested in purchasing gold watches. What sort of people will they be? Try and put yourself in the shoes of your customers.

Gold watches are a luxury item and aren’t cheap. The people you want to visit your site and the people who are most likely to make a purchase are going to have a good disposable income, and income they are willing to spend on expensive things. What other products would they also be interested in purchasing? The first thing that springs to (my) mind is designer clothing. People who are interested in buying a gold watch are making a statement. ‘Look how much money I’ve got’. Wearing designer clothes is another way of making that statement. So find websites that sell designer gear and exchange links. Remember it’s worth their while too because your customer base is very similar to theirs and you will both benefit.

You can then go on to exchange links that with sites that sell other luxury items like luxury cars, holidays etc. Once you have a better understanding of your target customer profile it’s not so difficult to find linking partners who will benefit you AND are of interest to your customers.

So when thinking of websites to exchange links with, I don’t think of those that are similar to mine. I think ‘who is my customer and what interests them as well as my product’.

Get it right and you’ll have a constant stream of quality, targeted traffic and less reliance on your search engine ranking. Get it wrong and you’ll be sending your customers to the competition.

Paul Middleton is a successful Internet entrepreneur. He shares some of his secrets at http://www.makingonlinemoney.com where he reveals how ANYONE can make money on the Internet.

• The Top 4 Techniques to Entice Visitors Back to Your Site


• Linking Strategy in the Post-Jagger Period


• Managing Your Reciprocal Links Directory


• How to Choose Your Link Partners


• Reciprocal Links: Quality is as Important as Quantity


• How to Choose Websites to Place Ads


• Creating a Media Kit to Sell Advertising


• Link Exchanges for Website Promotion


• 10 High Powered Ways To Increase Your Traffic


• Reciprocal Link Scamming