Reciprocal link exchange

1) Two way link exchange or reciprocal link exchange:-
Two way link exchange is the most common form of link exchange being taken up by most of the webmasters for increasing their link popularity. So why should we be left behind, lets get deeper into this form of link exchange.

Reciprocal link exchange will be taking place mostly in between two sites and sometimes in between a normal site and a directory site.

Ways in which link exchange can be done:-
Link exchange can be done manually or it can be done through software's. Nowadays many techniques have come into picture like buying links from a high pr site, using intermediary site for link exchange notification.

Lets consider two sites which are doing link exchange in between them. Let me explain you in terms of phase which I hope should make you more clear then any other illustration.
Phase I - Site's theme analysis
Phase II - Research and collection phase
Phase III - Link exchange request phase
Phase IV - Monitoring phase
Phase V - Maintenance phase

Phase I - Site's theme analysis:-
This is the first phase on which the whole of your Link Exchange Process is highly dependent. It goes like this, you determine the theme of your site by looking at the whole site in and out and based on it you will start contacting other sites for link exchange. Lets say for e.g. that you belong to some flower related site. Now the theme of you site will be flower based. So you should start looking out for other flower related sites. This will ensure that your phase I is done successfully. However instead of recognizing your site as a flower related if by chance you understand it as something different then the theme will be taken wrong. Theme problems normally come when a site is having huge set of services or items. When you have lots of service to offer it becomes difficult to generalize it and hence it should be taken and judged very appropriately.

Phase II - Research and collection phase:-
After you decide you site's theme, the next thing you need to look out is for sites similar to you site's theme. For collecting sites with similar theme we have many options. Some of them are as follows:
1) Manual link collection
Manual link collection as the name suggests is done manually. By manually we mean searching sites through search engines, directories, links from you competitor's sites. When you type in your keyword into Search engines they will return you a whole list of sites from their database. Similary you can search out sites by going to directory sites and and start collecting from there. For more information on how manual link exchnage can be done go to "Manual Link Collection".
2) Link collection through softwares
There are a number of software's available in the industry which can help you gather links from varied sources. This softwares will start gathering links from varied sources by just inserting keyword into their search option. For more information on link collection through software go to "Link Collection Through Software".

Phase III - Link exchange request phase:-
Once you have collected sites with similar theme the next phase will be to contact them. For contacting them you dont need to call them or goto their office. You just need to email them or fill form on their site asking for link exchange. Many sites will have forms which says "link exchange form". It becomes very simple to understand that these sites are willing to exchange sites. While in some sites you will find an email address which you can use to email them asking for link exchange. So in either way you can contact them.

Phase IV - Monitoring phase
After you have finished sending email or filling forms for link exchange requests you will start getting replies. The replies can be of many types. Emails might fail due to varied reasons like mail delivery failure. Some might say they are not interested in Link Exchange Processs. Others might give approval to link exchange and some might even not reply your message. You should make a status report wherein you can add this as a remark and don't send email to them again and again. You should send a reminder mail to those people from where you didnot receive any reply.

Phase V - Maintenance phase
The maintenance is all set to take place when you achieve quite a few number of reciprocal links. When you exchange link you should have collected other sites information like, that site's homepage URL, URL of the page on which your site is placed and many other details. In this phase you will keep a track of whether that site has not removed your link from its page. If some site has removed your link then you should remind them that they have removed your site accidentally or something like that. Further you should ask them to look into the matter and make your link live as soon as possible. You should make it a point to check whether your link is up or not in a week's time. If your link is again up then it is not a problem. Otherwise you should tell them that since my link is being removed and their is no reply from your side even after sending reminder emails, we are forced to remove your link from our page.