by Maya Pinion Website owners and webmasters who are trying to improve their search engine ranking by trading links with other sites should beware of being cheated. Beware of link cheating.
What is link cheating?
How can you protect yourself from link cheating?
Link cheating costs trusting webmasters, trying to build their website ranking, a lot of time and a lot of irritation. A lot of time adding links, submitting links, checking links and, ultimately, a lot of irritation removing links which don't reciprocate. One website owner became so fed up with link cheating (20 times in 2 weeks) that he changed his reciprocal link policy. DestinyFinders.com no longer will add a link to their site unless their link is added first, and confirmed to them by email. They promise to then add your link provided it is deemed suitable and acceptable. And they will no longer be a victim of link cheating, by avoiding sites who force you to use those automated you-go-first-but-we-don't-have-to-reciprocate link management programs. Many of these are good programs but they are being abused by bad webmasters. As for the link cheaters, in the interest of internet honesty and fair play, webmasters who offer a reciprocal link exchange should abide by the agreement. If someone links to you you should honor the link exchange and reciprocate. That means adding the other party's link to your site. Or, if you have decided not to reciprocate at least have the professional courtesy to email the other party stating that their link has not been accepted. Link cheating is reaching epidemic proportions and appears to be on the rise. And there appears to be no easy cure. But here's some good advice for website owners and webmasters who wish to trade links ... beware ... be aware ... and don't cheat.
Maya Pinion is a freelance writer and contributing editor for News4Net. DestinyFinders.com is credited with coining the term "link cheating". |