Link Exchanges: for PR or traffic?

[Greg-J]

When doing a link exchange, what's important to you?

[nsmchris]

My answer really depends on which of my sites we are talking about. I have an old site that is a PR7. I buy/trade links for PR on that site because I sell PR links to others :)

For my MS sites I don't really care about PR, I buy/trade for backlinks and traffic. In doing that though, I still get really high PR for a myspace site.

[Rob]

I like at least equal PR and traffic, but the most important thing is the number of outgoing links on the other site.

[minnseoelite]

When I first start my site I go for traffic with link exchanges first and do 200 - 400 directory submissions to mid - high PR directories......as most good PR sites will not link exchange with a PR0 site with little traffic.....After I get my uniques up to 2k a day then I try and get some PR3 - PR5 link exchanges to go with my PR directory links.

[Scilynt]

most important for me is incoming traffic from that link. I still like to think PR mean something at some point with ranking but overall it;s just a bargaining tool to get better traffic trades for me. If it helps with SEO ranking then all the better.

All of my sites have jumped a decent amount of PR on the first updates (usually at least 3 but often more like 4/5) so it makes it hard to consider PR being all that important.

[Carrielynne]

I think PR is worthless, Id pick traffic over PR any day.

[Jordan]

To me, PR helps but at the same time traffic is very important. I don't think that anyone should base their decisions for link exchanges on just either PR or traffic, unless you're experimenting on what works best. Going for both PR and traffic is probably better than just going for one of them.

[minnseoelite]

Well since I basically create, market and then sell my sites PR is important to me. I have found that generally I can get an extra $100+ dollars for each level on the PR scale so for a PR4 site I can almost always make around $400 more off the sale of the site than if it had been a PR0

[Selena]

I go for the traffic, but hey if the site happens to be a PR5 as well, then what does it hurt? I got a link on a high traffic site with PR0 and it did me wonders more than a PR6+ link could have done.

[Ajay]

I don't bother with link exchanges anymore... i guess traffic would be more important to me than pr; however, I've noticed i get maybe 150 or so hits a day from high traffic links... and it's just not worth cluttering half your page with other people's sites.

[minnseoelite]

Well besides traffic and PR it also helps new sites get indexed quickly. I launched my MSLS site did 5 link exchanges and within 3 days my site had 99 pages indexed in G and in 5 days was ranking for a lower keyword

[digitalninja]

I agree with Ajay. I dont do link exchanges.
I buy links however.

[jakkz]

I mainly buy quality links and link with other sites with similar traffic

[minnseoelite]

I agree with Ajay. I dont do link exchanges.
I buy links however.

I would not do link exchanges at all if I did not have to but I dont have any real advertising budget as I am trying to catch up on c/s so link exchanges and directory submissions are the only links I can get for the most part.

[misterproline]

Traffic! With Traffic you can obtain Revenue - Revenue can lead to purchasing the PR/links - XD

[WarBud]

Links for traffic. For resource sites, traffic creates more links, which creates more traffic. Higher traffic equals more revenue. The PR will come naturally.

If I had a site with PR 6+, then focusing on maintaining and growing PR is a factor. With a high PR, a site can be profitable just by selling links. Although I would focus on acquiring PR and traffic links. You never know if/when people will no longer place a premium value on a link from a high PR site.

[Sergio]

I don't like link exchanges very much. I get frustrated seeing that they get a lot of traffic and I only get about 10 uniques from that site. I send them at least 100-200.

[webbom]

I think that for this niche traffic is more important than pr.