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A link exchange (also known as a banner exchange)
is a confederation of websites that operates similarly
to a web ring. Webmasters register their web sites
with a central organization, that runs the exchange,
and in turn receive from the exchange HTML code which
they insert into their web pages. In contrast to a
web ring, where the HTML code simply comprises simple
circular ring navigation hyperlinks, in a link exchange
the HTML code causes the display of banner advertisements,
for the sites of other members of the exchange, on
the member web sites, and webmasters have to create
such banner advertisements for their own web sites.
The banners are downloaded from the exchange. A monitor
on the exchange determines, from referral information
supplied by web browsers, how many times a member web
site has displayed the banner advertisements of other
members, and credits that member with a number of displays
of its banner on some other member's web site. Link
exchanges usually operate on a 2:1 ratio, such that
for every two times a member shows a second member's
banner advertisement, that second member displays the
first member's banner advertisement. This page impressions:credits
ratio is the exchange rate.
One of the earliest link exchanges was LinkExchange,
a company that is now owned by Microsoft.
Link exchanges have advantages and disadvantages from
the point of view of those using the World Wide Web
for marketing. On the one hand, they have the advantages
of bringing in a highly targeted readership (for link
exchanges where all members of the exchange have similar
web sites), of increasing the "link popularity" of
a site with Web SEOs, and of being relatively
stable methods of hyperlinking. On the other hand,
they have the disadvantages of potentially distracting
visitors away to other sites before they have fully
explored the site that the original link was on.
Feig notes several aspects of link exchange companies
that prospective members take into account:
Banners that are animated images result in member
web sites taking a long time to load. Some companies
impose restrictions on animation lengths.
The size, in bytes, of a banner is important, affecting
both how long it takes to load and how long it takes
to render the web site displaying the banner.
Control over the subjects of advertisements is important.
Some companies offer guarantees that advertisements
will be restricted to certain subjects, will not include
advertisements for pornography, and so forth.
Companies that provide mechanisms to design banners
for webmasters often use automated facilities, where
the generated banner design is not reviewed by a human
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