The Good
The benefit that you will gain by using a traffic exchange network is quite clear. All you have to do is to install a widget to your blog and start sending traffic to the network. In return, the network will return the favor by sending 2x, 3x or even 4x traffic back.
The Bad
As soon as you’ll start using a traffic exchange network, you’ll start seeing an increase in your blog’s bounce rate. Click here if you don’t know what bounce rate is.
The other thing that traffic exchange networks can do is downgrading your blog’s average time on site. Though bounce rate is not as much of a concern for blog owners (compared to site owners), time on site definitely is as Google does consider average time when determining the quality of a link.
Another issue with some traffic exchange networks is that the posts their widgets show are totally unrelated to your blog. Also, some of these widgets give a very ugly look. For example, Wahoha or 2leep widgets always show semi nude girls irrespective of the category you select for your widget.
Lastly, one issue with some traffic exchange networks is that they send inferior quality traffic. By inferior, I mean visitors that weren’t interested in your blog posts at all. Most of the visitors at 2leep or Wahoha are there for interesting/funny/---- images; when they get referred to your blog and see a 500 words article, they instantly leave, decreasing your blog’s average time on site.
The Ugly
Traffic exchange networks do affect your blog’s seo and page rank; unfortunately, in a negative way. The first issue, though debatable, is that traffic exchange widgets extract too much link juice from you blog, leaving you at a loss in the long run. Also, as mentioned above, search engines do take into consideration the average time users are spending on a particular result to check the quality of the link so you might want to keep your blog’s average time on site as high as possible.
Another controversial issue with traffic exchange networks is that they put your adsense account at risk. However, some guys in the blogging community argue that Google penalizes those who use traditional traffic exchange methods like click exchange, not those who are using widgets of popular traffic exchange networks like MGID, Zergnet, etc. So its up to you whether you want to take chances or not.
Conclusion
I was using a traffic exchange network and had to remove it after I realized that things are getting messed up. Considering all the aspects, I would suggest to stay away from these networks as they would hurt you in the long run. It’s up to you though and only you know what is best for your blog.
