How to Respond to Link Exchange Requests (and Spot the Spam Ones)

If you run a blog or a business site with a few years of posts, your inbox probably gets a steady trickle of these: "I loved your article on X. I have a relevant page on my site and I'd be happy to link to you in return if you add a link to mine." Some are real people with a fair offer. Many are templates sent to long lists of sites.

This guide is for the person receiving them: what Google's rules actually say, six quick checks to tell spam from a real offer, and short replies for yes and no. At the end are MentionAgent's records from the other side of the inbox. MentionAgent sends outreach that proposes a mutual mention between two related sites, so we can see how site owners actually answer.

Is accepting a link exchange against Google's guidelines?

Not by default. Google's spam policies define link spam as "creating links to or from a site primarily for the purpose of manipulating search rankings", and the examples include "excessive link exchanges ("Link to me and I'll link to you") or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking."

The words that matter are "excessive" and "exclusively". Two related sites linking to each other because each page is useful to the other's readers is how the web has always worked. What the policy targets is the pattern: dozens of swaps with unrelated sites, link pages that exist only to trade, or a site whose outbound links are mostly paid back.

So the question for each request is not "is this an exchange?" but "would I link to this page if they had asked for nothing back?" If yes, the exchange is incidental. If no, the link is there only for the trade, and that is the kind of link the policy describes. Our guide to link exchanges covers the same rules from the sender's side.

Spam or real: six checks

Each takes under a minute. A real request passes most of them; a template fails several.

1. Does it name your actual page? A real sender quotes the title or the point of a specific article. "I loved your recent post" with no title is a template.
2. Does the sender's address match their site? Someone from example.com writing from a free webmail address when the site has its own domain is a warning sign, though not proof.
3. Does their page exist and fit your readers? Open it. Is it a real article on a related topic, on a site you would be happy to be associated with? Check the site's history with the domain age checker and its authority with the domain rating checker, and look for actual readers, not only a score.
4. Is the offer specific? Which of your pages, which of theirs, where in the text? "We can link to you from one of our sites" is not an offer.
5. Is it one site, or a network? "We have 300 sites in your niche" means a link seller, and sites run as a trading network are the pattern the policy targets.
6. Is there a catch? A request that turns into a fee, asks for a login, or links to an attachment or a "form to confirm" is not a link exchange. Do not click.

Spam and scams follow a few recurring patterns; our guide to link building scams lists them.

When it is worth accepting

An exchange can be good for both sides. Accept when all of these hold:

• The link helps your reader. Their page adds something to yours: a source, a deeper guide, a tool.
• The placement is in context. A sentence in the body of a relevant article, not a footer, a sidebar or a "partners" page.
• Their site has real readers in your topic. A link from an unrelated or empty site is worth little to you.
• It stays occasional. Google names "excessive" exchanges. Saying yes to every request turns your outbound links into the pattern it describes.
• Nothing else is attached. If money, goods or a service enters on either side, Google treats it as a paid link, and it should be tagged sponsored or nofollow.

After both links are live, check theirs is still there a few weeks later and whether it is dofollow; the nofollow link checker shows that in seconds.

How to say no

For obvious templates, you don't need to say anything. Archive or mark as spam. For a real person whose offer doesn't fit, a two-line reply keeps it friendly:

Thanks for reaching out and for reading the post. We keep our outbound links to sources we'd cite anyway, so I'll pass on the exchange, but good luck with the guide.

If the site is good and the timing isn't:

Thanks, I like what you've published on [topic]. I'm not adding links to that article right now, but if I update it or write something closer to your page, I'll keep yours in mind.

Only say the second one if you mean it.

How to say yes

Before you agree, get the details in writing, so there is no surprise later:

Thanks, this could work. Which of your pages would link to us, and where in the text? On our side, I'd add your page to [our article] in the section on [topic], with anchor text along the lines of "[topic phrase]". Once yours is live, send me the URL and I'll add ours the same day.

Three habits make exchanges safer: add your link to a sentence where it genuinely fits, don't use exact-match commercial anchor text, and keep a simple list of who you exchanged with, the URLs and the date. That list makes it easy to check the other side's link is still there months later.

If you'd rather find exchange partners than wait for them, our guide to backlink exchange platforms compares the options.

Three-way (ABC) exchange offers

Some requests propose a three-way exchange: you link to their site B, and in return they link to you from a different site, C. The idea is that the swap looks less reciprocal than A to B and B to A.

Treat these with more care than a direct swap. You can't judge site C from the email, it can be one site in a network built for trading, and the point of the setup is to make the trade look less like a trade. Apply the same test as before: would you link to site B if nothing came back? Then check site C as carefully as you would any site you link to yourself.

What about guest post requests?

The same inbox usually gets "I'd love to write a guest post for your blog" too. The checks above apply: is the pitch specific to your site, is the writer real, and would the article be worth publishing with no link in it? Some guest post requests are a way to place a paid client's link on your site. It is reasonable to accept good guest posts, to ask for a writing sample, and to keep the right to edit or remove links. Our guest posting guide covers the practice from the writer's side.

Why you get so many link exchange requests

Links from other sites still help pages rank in search, and they can also help a brand get named by AI assistants, which read the same web. Earning those links takes outreach, and an exchange is the cheapest thing a sender can offer: it costs them a link on their own site, not money.

Three things put you on the list. You have pages that rank or get traffic, you write about a topic someone else is trying to rank for, and your contact email is easy to find. A rising number of these emails usually means your pages are being found, not that something is wrong.

Many are sent by outreach tools that collect sites by keyword and send a template to each, which is why so many start with praise for "your article" without naming it.

How other site owners reply

MentionAgent's default first email proposes that two related sites mention each other's work where it helps readers. Between 20 August and 7 October 2026, site owners sent a human reply on 1,533 of those threads. This is where each thread ended up:

Asking to be paid was the most common single answer: about a third of site owners replied to an exchange request with a price. That is a legitimate reply if your site sells placements, as long as the paid link carries a sponsored or nofollow tag under Google's rules. If you are on the other side of that conversation, see what to do when a blogger asks for money. Asking questions before deciding came next, which is the instinct this guide is built around.

Method

• Source. MentionAgent's production database: outreach threads where the site owner sent a human reply between 20 August and 7 October 2026. The default first email proposes a mutual mention between two related sites; some users add their own offer terms.
• Why that window. MentionAgent's reply classifier started labelling paid offers on 19 August 2026. Before that, a price reply could be filed as a decline, which would undercount the "asked to be paid" row.
• Outcome. Each thread is counted once: as "said yes" if it reached the link-placed state or the latest reply agreed, proposed specific pages or sent link details, otherwise by the classification of the latest reply. Spam, off-topic and unclassified threads are excluded, leaving 1,533.
• Asked to be paid. Any reply where money was the condition: a rate, a price list or "we don't do free links".
• No reply text is published. The figures are counts; the templates on this page are written for it.

Frequently asked questions

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