How link trading works

Why do I need links?

Major Search Engines, like Google, Yahoo, and MSN, use complex mathematical formulas to determine which websites should be listed first for specific keywords that users search for. The higher your website ranks for keywords relevant to your website, the more traffic your website will get.

Among the many different variables the search engine formulas consider, the most important factor in that formula is the number of back-links your site has. A back-link is a link from an external website that points back to your website. Every back-link you acquire counts as a “vote” in the search engine formula. The more “votes” you receive, the higher you’ll score in the search engine’s formula, resulting in a higher search engine ranking and more traffic to your website.

How do I get quality links?

The most effective way to acquire links pointed back to your website is through a process called “link trading.” The most common way to link trade is to contact the website owner of a different website to request a link trade. Once a trade is agreed upon, the two website owners point a link to each others website from their own website.

As you search for link trade partners, it is critical to trade with websites that publish content that is highly relevant to your website’s content. From a search engine’s perspective, it is better to have websites with a higher Google Page Rank linking back to you rather than websites with a low Page Rank.

The Problem

Without the proper tools, link trading can be a tedious, time-consuming process. The steps of finding the right partners, requesting a trade, posting the new links to your website and checking to make sure your new partner has done the same, take valuable time and resources away from other important daily business activities. Additionally, as more and more back-links to your website are created over time, the task of managing those links to make sure you’re not being “cheated” can become an impossible task.

How does LavaLinx™ help me?

LavaLinx™ simplifies the link trading process. The LavaLinx™ system allows you to quickly and easily find and trade links with other website owners. The LavaLinx™ internal trading network allows you to quickly and easily search for and find highly relevant and highly ranked link trade partners.

In addition to simplifying the link trading process, LavaLinx™ automatically checks for link “cheaters”. LavaLinx allows you to automatically and dynamically manage all the links on your website.

Unlike any other link trading system available today, LavaLinx™ provides sophisticated tools that allow you to create Reciprocal (two way), Triangle (three way) and Parallel (four way) trades. Additionally, LavaLinx™ allows you the flexibility to dynamically manage existing back-links pointed at your website – change keywords, content and page destination on the fly.

How it works:

Within minutes of setting up a LavaLinx™ account you’re ready to start trading links. But before we get too far into trading links, let’s first make sure your website is set up properly to allow for Dynamic Website Updating.

One of the major advantages LavaLinx™ provides in speeding up the link trading process is Dynamic Website Updating. This feature allows the LavaLinx™ system to post new link trades to your website automatically. To set up Dynamic Website Updating simply copy the html code provided onto the pages on your website where you want to host your trading partner’s links. If you’re not familiar with how to copy the HTML code provided or how HTML works, you may want to get the help of the person who created your website for you.

Now that your site is ready to accept link trades, it’s time to go link hunting. There are two ways to find link partners – using the internal LavaLinx™ trading partners directory or by searching the web yourself outside of the Lavalinx™ network.

Internal Trades

Internal trades are link trades made with other websites in the LavaLinx network. The internal LavaLinx™ trading partners directory is an exclusive network of link trading partners that are active link traders that are ready to trade with you. To search for link trading partners inside of LavaLinx, click on the “Internal Trade” link on your Site Administration page.

You can either search or browse through the directory of sites. This directory is set up different than other directories. Webmasters are allowed to add their site to as many relevant categories as they want. This makes it much easier for link traders to find relevant link partners.

All websites listed in the directory show information related to the site. In order to help you make smart trades, LavaLinx™ provides you with Keyword, Webmaster, Google page rank and partner ranking information. When determining who to trade with, look for partners with keywords similar to yours and with a high Google page rank. You can also click on the details button and get a list of all the site's sending pages.

Each potential link trade partner will display two options: "one way" or a "reciprocal" button. Triangle or Parallel trades are created by clicking on the “one way” button.

Internal trades in just 4 simple steps.

1. Your Receiving Page: Here you select the page that you would like your link trading partner to pointed to. These are usually home pages or prominent pages in your site to which you want to build back links.

2. Trader's Sending Page: Here you select the page on your trade partner’s site that you want the link to your site placed on. All Sending pages are listed with PR and a link to the page itself so that you can check it out online. Sending pages will also show whether they are dynamic or static. A dynamic page will automatically post links when a trade is accepted. A static page requires the webmaster to post the links manually.

3. Your sending page: Here you will select a page on your site that will point a link to your trade partner’s site. Here again there are dyanmic and static sending pages.

4. Trader's Receiving Page: This is the page on your trade partner’s site that will receive a link from you. Again, this is usually a webmaster's home page.

The “View Final Trade” page will show you a summary of the trade and let you know what kind of trade you created.

When you submit the trade it will show in the trade partner’s account under Trade Requests Received. The trade partner can then accept, decline or counter propose your trade. Link trades that you submit will show in your account under Trade Requests Sent.

External Trades

External trades are link trades made with websites outside of the LavaLinx network. You can create link trades and email a link trade request or you can save link trades and manage them with LavaLinx.

External trades in just 5 simple steps.

1. External Name and Email: In this step you are asked for the name and the email address of the webmaster your are trading with. By default the Name field has "webmaster" in it, but you can change this to the webmaster's name if you know it.

2. Your Receiving Page: Here you select the page on your website that you would like the potential trade partner to link to. These are usually home pages or prominent pages in your site that you want to build back links to.

3. Trader's Sending Page: Here you will place the URL of the page on the trade partner’s website that you want your link placed on.

4. Your sending page: Here you will select a page on your site that will point a link to the trade partner’s site. These pages can be set up as dyanmic or static sending pages.

5. Trader's Receiving Page: In this step you will need to fill in the following fields:

URL: The URL of the homepage of the site you want to trade with

Title: Usually the keywords that relate to the site. Most sites that accept link trades usually will give you a title and description to use.

Description: The description of the site you want to trade with. Again most sites that accept link trades will give you the title and description that they want in their link details.

Contextual or Titled: Select whether you want the link to show up in your pages as a contextual link or a titled link. A titled link displays the link by first showing the title and then description under it. Contextual means that your title shows up within the copy of your description. To do this just put  where you want your link to show up. LavaLinx will grab the keywords from your title and place them where the  shows.

For example, if you set up your link information like this:

Link title: website design
URL: http://www.domain.com
Link Description: For the best  use our design services

and had contextual selected, your link would show up like this:

For the best website design use our design services

The reason we recommend contextual links is that they look more "natural" and display more like a blog than a link in a list.

Modifying Trades

After external trades are sent the webmaster may come back with a change or two. He may want his link on another page, or he may want his link details changed. To modify the link exchange you sent, you need to go the "trades in progress" section of your site admin and click on Trade Requests Sent. Find the trade that you sent and click on details. At the top of the trade details section you will see a modfiy button. Just click on this and modify your trade.

If the trade has already been completed and a webmaster comes back a few months later wanting a modification of the trade, just click on the details link in the list of completed trades. The modify button will be at the top of the details page.

How Social Bookmark Exchange Works

Social bookmarks are links from social media sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, etc. When someone shares, recommends, or votes for your web page on a social bookmarking site, your website gets a link back from that site. If other users like your content, you can also get lots of extra web traffic from the bookmark.

Lavalinx is the world's first social link building tool! As part of the Lavalinx community, you can easily find other users who have similar interests. You can then share pages with each other by requesting bookmark exchanges. You can bookmark your own and eachother's pages on dozens of social bookmarking sites quickly and easily - right from the Lavalinx interface.

To get setup, simply click on "Social Bookmarks" in the grey navigation bar. Here you can manage your social bookmarking accounts. The more accounts you have available within Lavalinx, the more bookmarks you can exchange with other users. Once you have some social bookmarking accounts to work with, you can get started trading:

Social Bookmarking in just 5 simple steps.

Click on Social Trade Directory in the right-hand column. Here you will find a community of users ready to trade social bookmarks with you. You can either search or browse through the directory of sites. Webmasters are allowed to add their site to as many relevant categories as they want. This makes it much easier for link traders to find relevant link partners.
Simply choose a web page that interests you, and click on the "social trade" button to request a bookmark exchange with the webmaster. With hundreds of pages, sites and users, the bookmarking possibilities are endless.
You will then select the page on your site that you would like the other webmaster to bookmark. Next, you will select the page on their website that you would like to bookmark.
On the next step, you will choose a user (some sites will have more than one user associated with them), which will then enable you will choose the social bookmarking accounts you would like to use in the trade. For instance you may offer to Digg and Stumble their page while asking them to submit your site on Delicious and Furl.
Finally, add the bookmarks! When you submit the trade, it will show up in your trade partner's account under Trade Requests Received. (They will show up in your account under Trade Requests Sent). The trade partner can then accept or decline your trade suggestion. Once the other webmaster has accepted your trade request, the trade will show up under"Trades Pending Bookmarks - Bookmarks to Add ". You can then both bookmark eachother's page (right from within Lavalinx - it's a snap!). Once Lavalinx verifies that each bookmark has been added properly, you will each be able to click on "complete trade" to mark the trade as completed.