But there are still an astonishingly large number of ways in which web masters make it difficult for other people to exchange links with them.

And let's be honest - the easier you make it for other web masters, the more links you will end up with.

So let's examine some of these ways as examples of tactics you should avoid if at all possible in your campaigns. All three of these examples are things I have seen on live websites in the last week or so, so these are really going on right now.

1) Demanding A Minimum PageRank (PR)

To many web masters, PR is the be all and end all of link swapping. To a certain degree this makes sense but be aware that Google is getting smartrer all the time. If it spots a site with no PR0 sites linking to them then this may well look unnatural.

And Google doesn't like annatural. It's one way Google ascertains whether you're trying to "game the system" and if you get caught you may find yourself delisted from Google altogether.

What's more, a PR0 site will likely gain Page Rank at the next Google update if it's a new site, so you would have had a quality link on that site if you were willing to be patient.

Infact, I've had sites go from PR0 to PR4 in a single indexing (and plenty of other people have experienced the opposite as their Page Rank vanishes overnight).

So the point is - you're making decisions based on a highly fluid and flexible quality like Page Rank whihc will be constantly changing. And as a result you're shooting yourself in the foot.

Make the *quality* of the site in question the primary decision-making factor and I think you'll have a far better long-term strategy.

2) No Blog Links

It's true that spam blogs (or "splogs") are rife but equally there is an ever growing number of good-quality blogs with excellent content, high readerships and lots of incoming links.

Excluding blogs altogether rules out exchanges with a huge pool of sites that are perfect for link exhcanges so take off your blinkers.

Indeed, with blogs being accepted into standard search engines and directories *as well as* specialised blog and RSS directories, this can even mean that they offer your site even more that a standard website.

3) No Link Exchange Form

Too many sites still expect web masters to email them to exchange links rathet than filling in a small form on their website. Not only is this frustrating for potential linkers because it's so slow but emails increasingly get lost in cyberspace or in today's spam filters and so may not even be received.

So use a contact form which makes life easier for visitors to your site and also ensures you get all the information you need to make a decision about te suitability of potential link partners.