Directory Submission - Reciprocal Linking

Hello

What are your thoughts regards offering visitors the option to submit a free listing to your directory in return for a link back?

 

People hate reciprocal linking.

 

Then you aren't offering them a free listing, there is a price which is the reciprocal link.

 

Agreed. For those directories which have it down as an option, I have noticed that reciprocal links are placed on link farms and non indexed pages.

Is it best the reciprocal listing option is avoided?

 

I don't remember the last time I submitted to a site that wanted reciprocal link backs.
Another idea would be to offer free listings in categories where there are no listings already

 

One of my competitors (niche directory) has always required a reciprocal, with their logo. They continue to get submitters, which leaves me scratching my head and wondering how they do so well. Wasn't there something in one of Google's edicts that forced reciprocal linking, in there eyes, was the same thing as selling links?

 

Who would give a link worthy of any real value as reciprocal link?

 

Spot on, so should directory owners offer the option to submit a listing for a reciprocal link? For those directories which do is there any benefit?

 

Many people do not like to have reciprocal links as they are hardly worth it.

 

Now a days people often avoid creating reciprocal links for any purpose so asking for a reciprocal link is not a good idea. Instead you can opt for accepting only quality sites.

 

Two many reciprocal links will get a site penalised by Google in no time these days. One way links still rule the roost.

I'm still toying with the idea of offering free listings, but with no live link unless they upgrade to a premium review.

 

From experience, managing a large number of recip links to make sure they're still there, aren't using nofollow, etc takes more time than it's worth.