Should You Allow a Link Exchange to Your Medical Website?

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Being the webmaster for many types of health care websites means we frequently receive e-mails from complete strangers who say, in effect: "I've seen your website and I think we should swap links to our website. Here's what you can post about my site on your website.... What do you want me to post on my site about you?"

What they want is a 'link exchange.' You link to me, I link to you. They'll mention how it will benefit both websites to rank higher in search engines. While that may sounds OK - and who doesn’t want to appear higher in search engines?! - I do not recommend doing it.

For one thing, your site can start to look "junky" with a long page with too many links to other websites with descriptions of their services which are of little or no interest to the patients who came to your website. Yes, despite their promise that your site and theirs are in related fields, are they really? If done blindly you could soon have links going all over the world (literally!) to random sites that are unrelated to your practice.

For another, they may not put a link to your site in a very prominent place. They can easily "bury" the link your website at the bottom of a long, long page. Your great site will be hard to find among all the other links they may have.

If you think they are a high-quality resource for your patients then you certainly set up a link exchange. This should be the first question to answer when considering an exchange: Will it benefit your web visitors to link to this other website?

If you're not sure, or if you would you do it only for trying to get a better search engine ranking then please don't do a link swap. There are other ways to get better ranking and to benefit your patients.

First, consider why your patients come to your site. Is it information about current topics or to learn your expert opinion on confusing issues? This is what you should spend time on – writing more for your website instead of worrying over a link exchange! Write a new page about new trends, about your thoughts as an experienced medical expert in your field, etc. Your patients trust you and they want your professional opinion. That's why they come back to your website again and again.

Now THAT'S the quality medical information that your patients want from you - not some random link to a site far, far away!

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Should You Allow a Link Exchange to Your Medical Website?

Newsletters from getnoticedonline.comSM

Newsletters from getnoticedonline.com^SM