Like I have mentioned before, my meager SEO knowledge and abilities are expanding; and by expanding I mean slowly evolving one step at a time. The status of reciprocal links is something I learned while doing some (very) simple link building.
As a way to expedite the growth of a backlink profile and increase page rank, websites will often exchange links (commonly known as reciprocal links). This form of link building is not such a hot idea because not only are they easy to recognize by the search engines, but reciprocal links appear to be a barter or swap rather than authentic endorsements. Thus, they can carry little, if any, value with the search engines.
Doing triangular links is a much more viable option – linking to one site that links to another site which links back to you. So site A links to site B, site B links to site C, and site C links back to site A. Grasp that? Triangular links appear much more legitimate and valid than reciprocal ones. And although theoretically Google and other search engines could pick this up, they are much harder to detect.
The best and most effective method perhaps is simply getting relevant sites (the higher the page rank, the better) to link to you without having to link back. Much easier said than done, I know. But getting a back link like that is pure SEO gold.
July 26th, 2007 at 9:47 am
you have been reading too much paranoia from seos.. reciprocal links are live and well.. been around on the web longer than google. what webmasters shoudl avoid are fully automated link exchange software and services that force you to link in high volume and low relevance.
I’ve got seven sites that all have links pages.. my rankings are better than ever. the difference is that I exchange links in low volume with relevant sites in my own site’s realm of interest.
July 26th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Catherine,
Thanks for your response. You mentioned that reciprocal links have been around longer than google, but so has keyword stuffing and “optimization of metatags.” While those at one point worked, they are no longer valueable for ranking. Reciprocal links, while they may have done some good in the past, are no longer are valuable as they once may have been. They, for the most part, cancel each other out. (Yes, there are always exceptions, but I would never advise a client to actively go out and seek out link exchange programs.) What I would advise is to find relevant links, like you mentioned. Use good anchor text, and make sure your websites are optimized for those keywords.