Three sites, three links, and a lot to remember.
ABC swaps are hard enough to agree. They are harder to keep track of.
In an ABC exchange, site A links to site B, B links to C, and C links back to A. Nobody links directly to the site that links to them, which is the point, and also why it is hard to follow in a spreadsheet. When one leg breaks, the other two parties carry on giving without getting.
Three sites link in a loop.
A links to B, B links to C, C links to A.
Teams use three-way swaps so that no two sites link straight back to each other. That makes the arrangement less obviously reciprocal, but it adds a leg to track and a partner to coordinate.
Every leg in one record.
Sites A, B and C, the partners and each link together.
ABC Link Exchange stores the three legs of the loop in one record, with source and target for each. Every leg is checked like any other link, so the record shows which part of the loop is Active and which is not.
Questions to settle before a three-way swap.
Three legs. One record.
Every leg of the loop checked like any other link.
The tools behind ABC swaps.
Every feature listed here is live in the app today.
ABC swaps were the deals we most often lost track of, because nobody ever saw the whole loop. A three-way swap is still an exchange, so the same caution applies: only take part in ones you would defend editorially.
The SEOENV team · Last updated 14 October 2026
Who uses this.
Where this fits in SEOENV.
Keeping an ABC link exchange on record
A three-way swap is still an exchange; consequently, Google’s link spam policy applies to it too. Because of this, keep each leg relevant to the sites involved, and keep the record so you can show what was agreed.
Likewise, direct swaps live in link exchange tracking. For partner details, see agency link management; for checks, see backlink monitoring or the backlink manager overview.
