Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

There was a time when a reciprocal link campaign was the #1 way most websmasters acquired links. For those of you who don`t know what reciprocal linking is, it simply means that you exchange links with another website and you both benefit. At least that`s the way it used to work.

However, in recent times, in terms of SEO benefits, reciprocal links have been greatly devalued by the search engines. Search engines simply don`t view reciprocal linking in the same favorable light that they used to. That`s not to say you absolutely shouldn`t attempt to acquire reciprocal links. I mean if you can negotiate a well placed link on a relevant website with lots of  traffic, then you should definitely do it. Just don`t expect the search engines to reward to you for reciprocal links as they did in years past.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback on this topic.

Dale King

 

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Hi Dale, I agree with you completely. Indiscriminate link trading will only
lead you to the Google Sandbox. My advice is to always think about the
audience and not the search engine. Be selective and only trade links if the
website you are linking to will provide value to your audience.

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David Wang
Chief WordPress Wrangler @ ClickWP

A reciprocal link is still a link. Regardless of any benefit from search engines, your audience may click through and discover your partner`s site. That audience, in turn, may link to the website directly from their sites or blogs.

So if some search engines give credit for reciprocal links, great. If others don`t, then you still get the benefit of visibility to actual people (not a search bot) that click the links to your site that they see elsewhere.


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Joe Rawlinson
Texadero - Web Marketing and Development
Family Says - Your private family website made easy!

Well said, David. I couldn`t agree more.

Dale King

-------------------------

If you`re tired of all the money-making
hype, lies and scams...read this!
Click here for more details!

A link may just be another link, but some search engines penalise you if
they think you`re gaming them. Case in point
penalty/">http://www.davidairey.com/how-i-reversed-my-google -ranking-
penalty/

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David Wang
Chief WordPress Wrangler @ ClickWP

blogjunkie,

You`re right. Reciprocal links in excess will raise suspicion and the search engine algorithms will probably detect that something is amiss.

A more subtle reciprocal campaign could be via your blog where where you naturally link to others in your conversations. In turn, some of them will blog and link back to your articles.


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Joe Rawlinson
Texadero - Web Marketing and Development
Family Says - Your private family website made easy!

No, don`t trade links at all.  If you want to get dinged by Google again and again by all means trade links.  Google no longer allows `google bombing` in their algorythm.

Read this Article from Google about what their standards are for websites.


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Aaron Wood
CEO
San Diego Dream Weavers
http://www.sddreamweavers.com
awood@sddreamweavers.com

New and improved! Now with blogging goodness!
http://www.sddreamweavers.com/san-diego-seo-marketing-blog/