banner exchange good idea or not

[Guest]

Hi
Everyone whats your opinions on banner exchange programs do they really help with ratings? do you find banners annoying? they don't really bother me so I would like to get a general opinion. I have started showing up in the search engines but need to get higher up the listings. so any other ideas would be grateful.
Many thanks.

[Girlonthehill]

Re: banner exchange good idea or not

Hi Ray (fellow Manc ;o)).

Not sure and there is so much 'wisdom' about search engines. I sorta get the idea that links to other sites and vice-versa can work to your benefit as some SEs place importance on how many links there are to your site. I think, if you are to exchange links then it's a good idea to exchange with complimentary sites and shared interests - never competitive ones. Also use a links page and keep them together - that way people will only look if they want to and they are not detracting attention from your own site. These are just my observations and you could learn much more by browsing through the search engine forum.

[Bethers]

Re: banner exchange good idea or not

Sharing links is a good idea done as stated in the last post - but they get more weight from se's (supposedly) if they are text links with good anchor text. For example - you want the words that link back to you to be good keywords for your site, not necessarily the name of your site. Banners don't give you that option.

If you are talking about purchasing banner advertising - I tried it once and didn't have any results - unfortunately you can't really ever see your banner out there - and I don't think they do a good job of finding sites that really are compatible - therefore they aren't relevant enough.

However, I know it can work - but in my case, the dollar amount involved isn't worth it to try!