Why are many directories still showing reciprocal link options on their “add a link†pages? I’ve also seen a number of directories where the basic listing is available both with or without a link back to the directory. Are there any positive reason(s) for reciprocal links back to a directory? Are there any negative reasons for using reciprocal links?
Google looks on reciprocal links in a bad light, you've probably come across directories with reciprocal features built in as default. Do a search on here for more info.
Jamie has already answered the negative impact.... Something else you should think about when you come across such directories. If the owner of the directory hasn't bothered to adjust his site based on what is pretty much comon knowledge regarding reciprocal linking options, is that really a directory you want to be listed in anyway? This morning, I was working on submitting a site to some paid directories. I came to the forum a few days earlier and picked out a few directories that I liked and scheduled them in. I got to this one site (I wont name it or the owner so don't ask) and found the category I wanted to be listed in. Got to the submission page and filled out all of my information, we are talking full custom written description, 5 deeplinks the whole schbang. This particular directory had a captcha system switched on so I carefully filled out the letters and then clicked the submit button. Page reloaded and it told me I got the captcha wrong, even tho I know I didn't. So I was getting a bit annoyed, especially when I saw all my deeplink information was wiped out. So I entered it all again and did the captcha again, I read it three times and it was spot on. Clicked submit... bang... template error on the unauthorized submission page. Now all my info was wiped out. Suffice to say I was seriously pissed about it. So I came to the forum and sent a rather harsh PM to the owner of that directory explaining that I had just wasted 30 minutes trying to submit a paid $30 submission to his site and that I was not impressed and he should get his directory sorted out before promoting it. To his credit, he responded and asked me a little information about my submission to which I replied later in the day. He came back and said he would work on his site and apologized to me, I asked him to notify me when his site was working. He spent the day upgrading his web site to the latest version of the software, checking that his submission pages were working properly and he came back later in the day to tell me he had resolved the problems and thanked me for my input. That is the kind of directory owner I will gladly spend money with and as a result of his efforts he will get my submissions again during my next submission cycle.
Most of Free reciprocal directories are only there to increase their backlink count i.e to increase the PR once they become PR3 or PR4 they remove those reciprocal listings and become a paid directory....
Reciprocal linking between site/site is still fine, but when it involves a directory i feel its not such a good idea, its harder for a directory to keep up with all that too. There is a part of the webmaster world out there that heavily relies on reciprocal linking, reciprocal linking isn't bad, it still has benefits, its just not suited to some situations. I did recently remove the reciprocal option from my directories.
IMO, Google hates the majority of directory owners. Truth be told, you all know it's true. Why the majority? Because a certain free released script made it that way, largely inflated the numbers of web directories. [Note: I'm not taking a dig, I've brought this matter up with the script owner and have also received confirmation of this from the owner]. I wouldn't bother having the free with reciprocal (or even paid with reciprocal, as I've seen before:|) with a directory, you're under the thumb with Google to start off with.
For the directory owners, reciprocal links can promote their directories. And for the submitter, you have more probability of getting the links approved.
What ? ( Just me ) its a crap system for those with directory who do not have the confidence to build their own site so recripricol is used in much the same way a novice see's fools gold. ? A higher chance of being approved, joking right where is a submissions merrit based on if it gives a recripricaol, just wrong thinking. For me if a site has that stupid stuff on it i walk away , these people are living in the past.
Personally I don't subscribe to the idea of a script being responsible, targetted sure but not responsible. DMOZ is in my opinion a lot worse with all of their syndication and duplicate listings all over the web and that came about long before any scripts were released. Just IMO of course
To the large point I agree - the script itself isn't largely to blame, it's how the free script has been marketed - also agreed by the owner of the script. Just like all directories playing with the PR game, they'll be punished either by serp penalties or PR manual edits - all for one reason, overly promoting and/or exploiting loopholes in Google's automatic systems, in this case, reciprocal linking. The Dmoz issue is a different ball game - and to this day I've never understood their reasoning for duplicating their directory As you know, opinions are like assholes
I offer free links in all of my directories and also have a reciprocal option too. If the webmaster gives a reciprocal I list them higher. That's the positive for the webmaster.
It was when people were all but forcing people to give a reciprocal link back that Google acted. There should be no reason why free will reciprocal linking shouldn't or wouldn't be allowed.