While traditional link exchanges still hold some value, it may be time to add a different tactic to your link-building arsenal. Why? Because it appears that swapping links doesn’t provide quite as much ‘oomph!’ for moving up in the search engine rankings as it used to, at least not for sites in highly competitive niches. Many sites that were on the first page of results and relied heavily on exchanging links have lost those coveted positions after recent search engine updates (especially the ‘Jagger’ update at Google).

Assuming that it’s true about link exchanges becoming an obsolete way to get higher search engine rankings, it’s wise to find ways to build one-way inbound links. At the very least, no web site owner should rely completely on one form of link gathering. It’s never smart to put all of one’s eggs in the same basket, after all.