I see so many users on LinkSpun that have installed the twentyten wordpress theme on a niche domain with 5 or 8 "handwritten" 60 to 150 word "posts" as their entire depth of content, desiring to build back links, in an effort to "seed" a blog in the eyes of SE bots (possibly after reading and watching a "how to build auto blogs" type blueprint course)... Where's the value for the surfer in this?
Other people tend to look with disdain on any website that's not of a certain type or structure. Do surfers only come from certain types of sites? Does traffic only exist on specificly structured websites? Now, yes, I know that there are several "best practices" when trying to build good SERP for websites, but is that all link trading is? I think there are other elements that should be considered in addition to the "best practices" that in some cases, might bring other values into play on a trade. For me at least, some mitigation on possibly some weaker points in the trade might make the trade have some surfer value and thus make the trade worthwhile.
I've heard people say they don't accept any inbound links or do trades with anything other than handwritten blogs...which makes me sort of wonder, Google isn't a handwritten blog, yet we all covet that traffic! As a point of fact, it's a site with ONLY outbound links! As a matter of supposition, getting position and ranking to get inbound links from "the google" is one of the reasons that people are saying they won't trade with anything but handwritten blogs. Kind of ironic IMHO.
I think that link trading should be contextually relevant, it should be of value to the surfer, link trading should be done between sites with a purpose other than just to build a back link network, and yes, also, link trading should consider the impact on your strategy for placement in SERP's. I'm not begrudging anyone their link building, link trading strategies, and I'm not suggesting that building a backlink network of sites is a bad thing heck, I've got 2 networks on here and 2 more more mature blog networks I haven't added yet, but I am suggesting that we shouldn't lose focus of the "other" reasons we trade links as well. I think by focusing only on getting SERP and SEO value from trades is leaving a lot of good trades on the table, and possibly a lot of traffic as well.
We can do all the trading we want and get the best SERP for our targeted keywords, but eventually the trade has to make sense to the surfer too, otherwise, there's noone to make the purchases that give us our paychecks.
Disclaimer: This isn't specifically about my sites, or any users that have rejected my trade inquiries. The thoughts came about as a result of them, and our own sometimes head scratching adventures as to why some people suggest the trades that they do. I don't begrudge anyone their reasons or trade decisions. I just noticed this trend in the short time that I've been on here and well... just wanted to rant a bit.
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