LavaLinx will no longer be providing Page Rank as part of its trading functionality. We feel that Google’s ability to give a quality score to a web page has diminished to the point that it is no longer of value to our users. Although there are still a fair number of webmasters that look to Page Rank as a measurement of a valuing a web page, we decided that supporting a flawed system is not in the best interest of webmasters seeking successful link trading. Successful link trading should be focused on a cached, content page that is relevant and user-friendly.

We are looking into other services that determine the value of a web page and will implement one that best serves this purpose.

If you want your link trade efforts to really work well, stop putting your links in links pages and link directories. Why? Because search engines are making an obvious effort to devalue lists of outbound links on pages. This may stem in part from the search engines crack down on paid links, but they may also be looking for aggressive link traders as well.

LavaLinx does not create link pages or link directories. What we recommend is that our users use content pages and blog posts as Sending Pages. We then recommend that only relevant outbound links are placed on each page. This creates a scenario that is good for the user. They can read whatever the post or content page is about and then be able to visit sites relevant to that content. Google’s Adsense works on the same principal.

Ok, so what is a Sending Page?

A Sending Page is any page that points links to another site. In LavaLinx you can tag as many pages as you want as Sending Pages. As recommended above, Sending pages should be content pages or blog posts. We currently are working towards a plugin for Wordpress that will dynamically create a Sending Page each time a post is selected for such.

Sending Pages can be either static or dynamic.

Dynamic sending pages

These pages require a small snippet of code to be placed on each sending page. It also requires one file to be placed in the root area of your site. It currenly only works on PHP pages, but will soon be available in other formats. The code is generated server side and we purposely left any comment tags off so there are no patterns left for search engines to see.

The great advantage of setting up dynamic sending pages is that whenever you make a link trade, with any site in the internal network, the link of the site you’re trading with is automatically placed on your sending page. This means that link trading will be just making decisions not messing with html or FTP.

Static sending pages

Some site may not have PHP, or the webmaster may choose to have static pages. This just means that when link trades are made the webmaster will need to update his sending pages manually.

Ok, so what is a Receiving Page?

Receiving Pages in LavaLinx are pages that links are pointed to. The most common Receiving Page would be a site’s home page. With LavaLinx you can have as many Receiving Pages as you want. They don’t have to be home pages. This will allow you to get a number of links pointing to pages deep in your site. You can also have as many different keywords point to the same Receiving Page as you want. Doing this is important because it allows you to optimize for multiple targeted keywords, it makes your backlinks appear more diverse and it gives you control over the copy surrounding those links.

For instance let’s say I have a design site and I’m going after design keywords. I may set up my Receiving pages like this:
Receiving Page 1: URL: www.example-design-site.com
Link Description: We provide the best logo design on the internet.

Receiving Page 2: URL: www.example-design-site.com
Link Description: We are so confident with our web design services that we provide a 100% money-back guarantee on all design work.

Receiving Page 3: URL www.example-design-site.com/design-blog/
Link Description: Are you looking for design advice? Visit our design blog for advice, tips and how tos.

Notice that all link descriptions are contextually placed links. We recommend contextually placed links on all link trades.

Old-school link trading methods are not going to cut it moving forward in SEO. If you want to see a dramatic increase in your rankings, for your link trading efforts, incorporate the methods above.

Some of the topics covered in this podcast are listed below.

A few link trading basics

1. Search Engines rank pages not websites.
2. Relevant link trading does work and will always work because it’s good for your users.
3. You may not have control over who links to you, but you do have control over who you link to. Let’s face it when you place links on your site to other sites you are recommending these sites. Make sure you place them on a relevant page and make sure they are worthy of linking to. I think that Search engines do take into account who you link to and that your site will gain authority by linking to sites the help the user.
4. Avoid placing links in big lists on a links pages, or making a “links” directory.
5. Don’t try and cheat on links. The experienced SEO will see it in a second, drop your link and keep you from trading with all the sites that they are working on. So you’ll lose way more than you’d ever gain.
6. You can also trade image ads and use alt tags to diversify your backlink portfolio.

Emailing link trade requests

1. Send personalized emails. If you can find a name use it. You can also include their domain in the subject line.
2. It is a common courtesy to place their link on your site first, although I’m seeing less and less of this.
3. Don’t send emails that say you’ve just deleted their link or something like that when you’ve never really traded with them. With Lavalinx I know all the sites that I’ve traded with and I can easily search them. Yes this method gets my attention, but then it just annoys me when I find out that I’ve never traded with them and they’re just using it as a hook to get a better open rate.

Pages that links are placed on

1. Ideally you’ll want your link on a content page or blog post with your links placed contextually within relevant content.
2. The page needs to be indexed and cached in Google.
3. Don’t worry about Page Rank. Too many webmaster get caught in this trap.
4. The page should be related to the page on your site that the link is pointed to.
5. Make sure no link cheating methods are being used, for instance:

a. nofollows in links or in the meta tags
b. javascript links or redirects
c. links in frames
d. links in iframes
e. robots.txt disallowing the page your link is placed on.
f. Some pages even with Page Rank may not be indexed.

Your anchor and link description

1. In your anchor text use the keywords that user would use to search for your service or products in the search engines.
2. If possible, place your anchor text contextually within your description
3. Diversify your anchor text backlinks. For example if your site is about online education use online education, online degrees, online classes, online schools etc in your anchor text
4. have your links point to more than your homepage. Remember Search Engines rank pages not websites.

Adam Sorensen talks about a few of the benefits of using LavaLinx.

This podcast contains a simple overview of LavaLinx and touches upon the following:

• A brief overview of Adam’s SEO background
• Why LavaLinx was built
• Receiving Pages
• Sending Pages
• Reciprocal, Triangle and Parallel link trades
• Manually reviewing LavaLinx site submissions
• LavaLinx’ pending patent