You have probably heard of traffic exchange sites and maybe you plan on trying them for your blog.
Well, here’s a word of warning: Traffic exchange sites are not worth your time and efforts.
The way traffic exchange sites operate doesn’t have any significant benefit for your blog. Yes, you might get some traffic from an exchange site but majority of the hits are useless traffic.
You might see an improvement in your traffic stats but this basically means nothing because the spike in traffic doesn’t offer significant value.
It’s highly recommended that you focus your attention on more effective traffic-generation techniques like search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, content marketing, and direct advertising.
These strategies are worth it because they attract organic traffic towards your blog.
They attract visitors who are genuinely interested in reading your content because they found value in them.
In traffic exchange sites, people visit your blog not because they like it but because they want you to return the favor and visit their own blogs. This isn’t a sustainable strategy in generating blog traffic.
What are traffic exchange sites and how do they operate?
Before discussing the ugly side of traffic exchange sites, it is good to give newbies an introduction as to what these sites are.
Many bloggers look for ways to generate more traffic to their posts, and some use traffic exchange sites. In this, you have to sign up and submit your website for the traffic exchange program.
Your site is then included in the loop of multiple sites for bloggers looking to get more traffic like you to their blogs.
For you to gain from the program, you have to browse all the added sites for you to build up credits. The credits are an indicator of the number of times the other sites in the loop view your site.
Traffic exchange sites are controversial since most people state that they are not beneficial in generating traffic to your blog.
Behind the operation, there are three different types of people namely, the clicker, seller and buyer. The clicker happens to be the lifeblood of the business.
They work by clicking on a certain link and remaining on the page until you are instructed to proceed to the next one. For each link you click, you get credits to generate traffic to your site.
The traffic exchange site pays you 2 cents for every click.
The seller’s duty is to sell packages to others. A seller has to buy any of the plans for them to be able to re-sell them to others.
The buyer can purchase ad packs from traffic exchange sites and earn something small from the purchase.
Traffic exchange sites claim that they help people generate traffic to their websites but what really happens is that people buy the chance to make commissions from others.
If you aim at getting more people to be loyal followers of your site, traffic exchange sites are not for you.
More Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use Traffic Exchange Sites
- They increase your bounce rate.
A high bounce rate basically means that people are visiting your website but they are leaving immediately without bothering to read your content. This is because visitors from traffic exchange sites only visit your blog to earn a credit so that you will also visit their blog in exchange for their visit.
- The conversion rate of the traffic is very small.
Again, this is because of the fact that the visitors are not interested in your blog content. They are only interested in earning credit and getting a visit from you. A low conversion rate is bad especially if you are selling products and services in your blog.
- Some traffic exchange sites can harm your computer and slow down its performance.
This is especially true if the exchange sites are using bots or automated software. Stay away from these types of sites.
- Google has a strict policy against blogs that make use of traffic exchange sites to generate visitors.
The company is even stricter with the policy if your blog displays Adsense ads. Your Adsense account can get banned or penalized because of your utilization of traffic exchange sites.
- Surfing traffic exchange sites just to earn credits is a major waste of time.
You might spend hours just trying to earn enough credits. Instead of wasting these precious hours, you should spend them on much more sustainable and more effective traffic generation techniques like search engine optimization and social media marketing.
- A lot of the visits are fake.
They are not real. This is because a lot of those using traffic exchange sites are using bots and automated software. Sure, they’re increasing your traffic stats but they are next to useless.
- They can hurt your rankings in the search results.
So, not only are you getting fake traffic, but the same fake traffic can cause your website to slide in the search rankings. That’s literally a double whammy.
- They waste your effort.
Every online business owners values the effort they put into generating more traffic. Since traffic exchange sites only generate fake traffic, it is not only a waste of time but also a waste of effort.
- Cheating.
Some malicious people cheat in these programs. Though traffic exchange sites give you an impression that many people get to view your site, not everyone actually views your site. Some people only use software that opens webpages without actually seeing any of the added sites in the loop. It is the worst form of deception which cannot convert to sales.
- Adware, viruses, and spyware.
The ease access of traffic exchange sites makes it easy to pick up spyware, adware or viruses. This can negatively affect your site and cause significant damage.
- The presence of spam backlinks.
using traffic exchange sites can lead to spam backlinks which can be detrimental to your site. Google does not like sites that have numerous backlinks from poor quality websites. You may be penalized from this and have a hard trying to get your site back on track from Google penalty.
Conclusion:
The bottom line here is that traffic exchange sites aren’t helping your blog at all. They actually have the potential of hurting your blog.
This is not to mention the fact that it’s very time-consuming to use them.
Instead of wasting an hour on an exchange site, you should use that time to write a good piece of content that you then publish in your blog.
The new article may bring in just a trickle of traffic but at least they are genuinely interested in your content. They’re not visiting just for the sake of visiting.
They are visiting because they are interested in what you have to say.
