Would you like to increase your web site traffic and sales? By using a simple web site promotion method, you can get higher placement in search engine listings, which translates to more money in your bank account. If you are willing to do some work, you can get more targeted traffic to your site every month, at zero cost.

Exchanging links with other related web sites can help your rankings with Google, one of the most used search engines on the internet. To get full benefit from exchanging links with other web sites, you must understand the policies of the Google PageRank system.

In the past, many web sites used a "link farm" page to take advantage of Google"s PageRank system. Link farms (containing listings of all kinds of web sites, with no regard to quality or related subject) have been banned according to Google"s current web site qualifications.

Google recommends that important web sites have inbound links from quality, related web sites. Conforming to this rule means your web site will get a higher Google PageRank (which is a guage of site importance) and higher listings on Google search results pages. This equals more free traffic for you.

An effective link exchange directory should be focused on your web site"s theme. If you have a web site that sells pet products, it will not help you to exchange links with an online casino site. Actually, doing so may actually hurt your rankings.

To make your link exchange directory work for you, you"ll need to focus on sites that get a decent amount of traffic and relate in some way to your site theme. You can go to www.google.com and download the Google ToolBar to be able to see the Google PageRank for any site you visit. If you target related web sites with a PageRank of 4 or higher, your link exchange will have greater impact on your overall ranking with Google.

To make exchanging links less work for you, register your website with one of the online link exchange services. LinkPartners.com is a good place to start, though there are others you can use. Just submit your site to the proper category and watch the link requests roll in. Now it"s your job to research each one to see if you would benefit by exchanging links with them.

Don"t be afraid to turn down a link exchange request. A polite note to the sender will be fine, or don"t even reply at all. Avoid having unrelated or poor-quality sites in your link directory. You will be penalized by the Google PageRank system for having unrelated links on your link directory that do not compliment your site theme. The more selective you are when exchanging links the more important your site will be according to Google PageRank.

Add a link exchange campaign to your web site promotion plan today. Do it correctly and you"ll get more free traffic from Google and some clicks from the sites displaying your related link.