Hello DP, I recently had the pleasure of dealing with an SEO consultant who attends all the expo events and travels the globe working in web marketing.. they surprised in a report they did for a project of mine. The project is like talksugar sites - a large collection of network sites like cheapfood.com, cheapflights.com (examples) - etc all interlinked.. They said in order to rank well you need: "Add a reciprocal link exchange page to all your web sites" Every other SEO company I have dealt with have never mentioned about reciprocal, in fact this SEO was not oblivious to my concerns, they just said you should share the love and that the web is a community that links should be two ways as it does not harm your rankings - true or false? Can we put away the myth of reciprocal links? He also said that Matt Cutts is very misleading and that SEO is not all about listening and following his videos - I understand this but to call him misleading - this guy did definitely know his stuff. Opinions please?
Reciprocal links are playing major role in Search engine optimization. The reciprocal link is only worth, if it is related your website content. Giving outbound links to invalid sites leads you to degrade your website in the search engine results. Be aware of giving links to other websites.
I would agree that reciprocal links can certainly have their place. Would I put a "reciprocal links page" on every site though? Probably not - I think I'd like to see such links appearing in a way that makes them look a lot more organic.
I still use reciprocals but as you mentioned in your post only with sites that are similar to mine. A few years ago I relied only on article writing and reciprocals and did really well in the SERPS so I'm still doing it today. But like anything, test it for yourself.
Reciprocal links are GREATLY devalued these days. They still have their place, but it's far more effective to get one way links on high quality, very relevant sites with strong PR.
Reciprocal links sometimes hurt your rankings a lot, how? if your link partner is punished by google they will also punish those, who have links to those sites.
Why would I do something that does not effect me positively but does not harm me negatively? I think they are always bad news.
I think onw way link is batter than reciprocal but if some time if you do not get results then go for it ..
reciprocal or link exchange have no used as compare now. Google no more consider reciprocal links. One way or three way linking is effective today. And three way also works
Of course when you will ask link to other site relevant to your them you must put their link on your site other they will not give you link and it’s not harm at all.
I dont think they play a MAJOR part but a part yes. A reciprocal link counts for some but not as much as it used to.
This is one of those questions where there is no answer. You cannot answer it until Google comes out and tells you how they handle reciprocal links. What I think and 3 gazillion other people think does not matter. All we can do is try it and see what works. What works for me might not work for you, and vice versa.
Can reciprocal links actualy hurt your site though, when I first started out I just had lots of random reciprocal links and I got to the third page, back in the summer I discarded them all and now Im on page 4 on google. Im thinking of starting up again but do you think it could hurt the site in the long run or is the worst that can happen be that Ive wasted some time?
Seems to me you answered your own question. You dropped from page 3 to 4 by removing the links. As I said in my previous post, nobody knows for sure. You just have to test, test test and do what works best for you. Heck, I just read a report from a so called "SEO expert" that claims getting links from non-related sites is good and you should try to get those too. In the past, the so called experts advised against it. So, who do you believe? What do you do? Try it and see if it works for you.
Here's why it isn't usually wise to give reciprocal links: • The URLs you are linking out to today may be sold in the future and may become undesirable websites (porn, warez, etc.). • Unless you track and check on your outbound links frequently (very time-consuming), you will almost certainly end up with a growing number of outbound links to re-sold websites of an unsavory nature. I speak from the experience of this having happened to me. • Therefore I only give outbound links to websites with owners and subject matter I am personally familiar with.
Good point Jim. I never gave it much thought of ending up with a site being sold and turned into a porn site and the new site keeping my links. Reason being that my reciprocal links are for subject related sites only. If you are serious about your site you do indeed need to keep on top of those links. There are free checkers out there as well as paid versions. Seobook has a free one.