is reciprocal bad?

is it bad to ask for reciprocal, does google penalize your site ?

thanks

 

I wouldnt ask for recip no
noone knows for sure if having an option to recip trade could be bad but I know making it compulsary is bad
but then..there are a LOT of older directories still trading links this way
travel dirs seem to be some of the main culprits and a lot them them don't seem to have been affected
I think the worst that could happen with recip trades is that they would be discounted

 

You can read this article and decide for yourself.

 

It’s considered manipulation of page rank and can get you penalized.

 

How about banners?

Most niche/Adult themed directories (for instance) will request a banner for "traffic" and not "text link" so i have to wonder if that is ok.

On the other hand if you dont have "page rank" to offer (inside the directory) then why not?

I can see why some directories might be tempted to do this especially in some niche fields that google or any other SE lacks
in sending traffic to them and they rely on those links/banners to send them traffic.

But as many have said it might not be in anyones best interest when the AX falls.

thx
malcolm

 

Banners and text links are the same things as far as spiders are concerned.

 

of course its beneficial. Google always see and consider it if it comes from a relevant website.

 

I always ask for a one way link. About 1/4 of the people who give me a link ask for a reciprocal in exchange. Since I've done my homework ahead of time and know the site is related to mine I trade the reciprocal. I've had good success moving up in the SERPs using this method.

 

no, not really, the problem is it only has a small chances to get listed and get backlinks.

 

reciprocal link has no importance in the eyes of google search engine any more

 

I have never done reciprocal link .. but I think that if google identifies that you are doing reciprocal linking .. You will be spanked by the big daddy (google)

 

as long as reciprocal linking isn't done "excessively" as cutts said, and it appears natural and is done between relevant sites/pages I don't think there is any problem as all.
anything excessive, meaning hundreds or perhaps even thousands of new links a week or month/whatever might call attention to the situation and then it might be considered spam.
do it with sites in your niche and which you review. that's totally natural and how the internet was born in the first place. people linking to each other. geez