Building links to your travel blog is one of the most crucial components towards having a successful site. Creating great content just doesn’t cut it without links to back it up. There are many ways to attract links naturally; however, being proactive and building links with your own initiatives is equally as important. Here are five benefits to exchanging with other travel bloggers.
1) Building Relationships
One of the most satisfying aspects of doing link exchanges revolves around the social component of exchanging emails with other travel web-masters. Aside from the request to exchange links you have the opportunity to get to know the face(s) behind the site. It’s a great way to find out what others are doing in terms of travel, blogging and life in general.
2) Increasing Your Sites Visibility
A lot of first time readers may come to your site through the blogroll or links section from another blogger. Having your name out there on as many sites as possible strengthens your brand and levels of exposure. Many of the top travel bloggers appear on the travel blog directory of other travel blogs. I was once contacted by a tourism board who found me on the blogroll of another travel site!
3) Increasing Domain Authority and Page Rank
Last but certainly not least, the benefits of link exchanges is apparent in your sites increased domain authority and page rank. Domain authority and page rank are what most advertisers pay attention to these days from an SEO perspective. The higher your Domain Authority and Page Rank, the more likely your site can command top $$$ for sponsored posts, banners and text link advertising. Moreover, a site with stronger Domain Authority tends to do much better in the search engines.
Overall, it’s not difficult to see why exchanging links with other travel sites is a very proactive and worthwhile endevour towards building a more successful travel blog. Although certain travel bloggers won’t reply to your emails, the worst overall possible situation is that you’ll have somebody say ‘no’ or ignore you completely. Keeping that in mind it’s worth the effort to contact just about anybody who has a links section to inquire whether they will be willing to exchange links. Keep in mind that building a relationship first with indivual(s) by connecting on social media or via comments on each others sites is going to give you far more of an advantage when it comes time to requesting a link exchange.
