For those of you not familiar with 
the how's and why's of link exchanging, here's an overview. 

Link trading, sometimes called reciprocal linking is a web promotion strategy used by webmasters and site owners to increase qualified traffic to their sites.   Webmasters search the Internet for other websites that have the same type of visitors and contact those site owners by email requesting a link trade.   If a site owner agrees to the trade, they then link to each other's websites in order to share traffic.

Search Engines Don't Actually Search the Web:  Most search engines create a date base by examining only the web sites submitted to them.   They search each submitted web site and add data to their own computer files based on what they find on the submitted sites.  (Some search engines, such as Google use a slightly different approach)    Technically, the process is called spidering.   

So when you go to a web directory and type in a word such as "Pro-Choice" and then click search, the search engines don't actually go out onto the web looking for anything.   They merely search their own data base.   

So, if you have not submitted your web site to that search engine and your web site has  not been spidered, no resultant data is in their data base.  You  can search all day and you'll never be found.  

You can have the world's greatest web site, but unless  you have some connection to other web sites or are listed in some search engine data bases, your presence on the Internet is invisible.

Some (Not Very) Technical Stuff:  

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Priority listings:  One of the factors that places a web site higher up in some of the search engine lists is the number of links it has to and from other web sites.   Every major search engine uses link analysis as part of their ranking algorithms.    So setting up a reciprocal links page and linking with other web sites will help you to get a better listing position in the search engines.   The more relevant links you have, the more traffic you have, so the more relevant links the better.

Appropriate links:  Be sure that the sites you link to are appropriate for your website.  Search engine link analysis is not about getting lots of links from just  anywhere.    It's about getting links from good web pages that are related to the topics for which you want to be found.

For example linking a fishing gear web site to a knitting circle web site would not be appropriate.   For example, on our web site offering  Wedding services we direct our attention  to a specific audience.   Be particularly sensitive if you are dealing in adults products.    

Speed:  Search Engines take weeks or months to get your web site data into place where web surfers can find you.   

Cost:  Search engines range from free to about $200 per year.

Making Changes:  If you make any significant changes in your web site description, title, key words, or to the site itself, you have to re-submit your site to all the search engines and then your looking at another wait of weeks or months before they reflect those changes.

Time Involved:   There are literally dozens of search engines,  so you can spend hours submitting and re-submitting your site.  ( And if your not technically minded, you  could be measuring the time in days, not hours.)   Then in a couple of months you need to do the whole thing all over again.   

Some site submissions will trigger responses that require technical answers.   This can be a stone wall between you and your customers -- no technical answer equals no listing equals no site viewers equals no sales equals no profits.  

Who's in Charge:   With a search engine, a mainframe computer somewhere or some unknown technician is in control.  

If your site does not appear at or near the top of the list, by exchanging links, we  can assist each other in moving up on the lists.   Ranking and being found in the Google search directory is particular sensitive to and dependent upon links with  other web site.   You can verify this at:  <http://www.google.com/webmasters>

and <http://www.google.com/technology/index.html>

First, it generates real, qualified unique visitors to your site.   A visitor will see your link on the site of a reciprocal link partner, and click on it to come to your site.

Second, reciprocal linking increases link popularity in some major search engines such as Google.   So having reciprocal links helps your listing in these search engines to be listed higher in their list of search results.  This obviously increases the the chances of others finding your web site.

Third, it's free for both of us.   

Fourth, the net result is more paying customers which equals more profits.

A Compatible Web Site:

Obviously both of our websites need to appeal to the same type of viewer.   If you have not already done so, please check out our web site to see if we draw viewers who are like-minded and similar in temperament.