Built for swappers
Free link exchanges for bloggers, and what to buy instead
Swapping guest posts is fine until it turns into a pattern. We show how to run exchanges with a clear head, and where a $1 to $500 paid placement beats another round of emails.
- Single dofollow links from $1
- Nothing is charged until you pay the basket
- Placements usually live in about 24 hours
Rough price per link this estimate uses
- DR 0–9~$2
- DR 10–29~$6
- DR 30–49~$18
- DR 50+~$45
How it works
Before you say yes to a swap
- 1
Read their last five posts
Open the blog and read, do not skim. If the posts could sit on any site, the swap will teach Google nothing about yours.
- 2
Count who they already link to
A partner who links out to forty unrelated shops every month is a bad neighbourhood. Check the outbound pattern first.
- 3
Offer one post, not a trade
One guest post, one contextual link, no promise of a return. Reciprocal rows of A to B and B to A are the shape Google calls out.
- 4
Log it and look again in 30 days
Write down the date, the URL and the anchor. Then check the inbound link once it should have been indexed.
What it is for
Where free link exchanges still work
Swaps are not banned. Google's spam policies name excessive link exchanges, which leaves room for the occasional honest one between two blogs that share readers.
Two blogs, one reader
Your recipe blog and a kitchenware reviewer share an audience. A single guest post between you is editorial, not a scheme.
A swap with a clear ceiling
Decide before you start: three swaps a year, no more. A ceiling keeps the habit from drifting into a ring.
A paid placement when swaps stall
If the reply takes three weeks, buy a single placement and keep the calendar moving.
An audit after the fact
Every link you receive should be looked at, not just counted. See the WordPress runbook.
Who it is for
Why bloggers drift from swaps into schemes
Most swap rings start with good manners. Two bloggers trade a post, enjoy the traffic, and agree to do it again next month.
Then a third joins. By the fifth, nobody reads the partners' posts any more, and the anchors all say the same money phrase.
Google's link spam policy lists "excessive link exchanges" next to bought links and automated link programs. The word that matters is excessive, and nobody outside Google knows the exact line.
We would rather give you a habit. Not a threshold. Swap with blogs you would read anyway, vary the anchors, and keep paid links for the topics where you have no friends to ask. A one-year new blog has different needs from an old one with 300 posts.
- vetted donor domains in the catalogue
- 50,000+
- cheapest single placement
- $1
- top domains
- ~$500
- usual time to go live after payment
- ~24 h
Our position
Swap for relationships, buy for deadlines
A swap earns its keep through the reader it brings. If the only reason for the swap is the link, a labelled and priced placement is the cleaner deal, because both sides know what it is.
- Swap rarely, with blogs you would read
- Pay when you need a link by a date
- Keep every link in a log you can show
Timeline
Dates that changed how swaps are judged
Guest blogging for links called out
Matt Cutts published a post on the decay of guest blogging as an SEO tactic, and the tone of the conversation changed.
Penguin 4.0
Penguin became part of the core algorithm and began running in real time, so bad links are discounted faster.
Link spam update
Google rolled out an update that uses SpamBrain to neutralise unnatural links.
Core and spam update
New spam policies, including site reputation abuse and scaled content abuse, went live alongside a big core update.
FAQ
Questions swappers ask us
Are free link exchanges safe for a small blog?
They can be, in small numbers. A single guest post traded between two blogs with an overlapping readership looks editorial. A monthly rotation of the same anchors across ten blogs does not. Nobody can name the exact line, so keep it rare and keep it relevant.
How many swaps a year is too many?
There is no published number. A working rule is a ceiling you set yourself, such as three or four a year, and a log that shows each one stands on its own. If you cannot explain why a partner is relevant, skip it.
Do I need to write my guest posts by hand?
Not strictly, but a post nobody edited reads like it. Whoever publishes it carries the reputation risk. Our own placements are drafted by AI with one clean link, and you can supply your own article if you prefer.
What does a paid link cost compared with a swap?
Placements here run from $1 to about $500, scaled by the donor's Domain Rating, traffic and niche. A swap has no price but costs a post you write, an email chain and time. See the budget page.
How do I tell a good swap partner from a ring?
Look at who they link to. A ring shows up as dozens of unrelated outbound links, identical anchors and a pitch that mentions the link before the topic. Our red-flag list has the full set.
Will a link from a swap rank my blog?
No link can promise that. Links are one input among content, crawlability and demand. A link from a relevant blog that readers click is worth more than ten that nobody opens.