Hi there, I wonder after Google Jaggle updated, they've devalued links from reciprocal compaign. However, I think it still better to have link back better than no links. I know one-way link is better way, if come from relevant sites, its best but seems hard to get it. What do you think guys? Cheers, Sxperm
You are correct in saying that one way links are better than reciprocal links but reciprocal links still hold a good deal of value. Google values older links highly so any reciprocal links you have will be valued highly in the long term. At the end of the day not all sites can get one way links so there has to be a certain level of reciprocal linking. Also seach engines like a natural linking pattern - there is nothing natural about a site with no reciprocal links.
I still beleive reciprocal links are very important when thinking of overall link popularity. One-way linking certainly is the best but, still reciprocal linking is still vital. It is also an excellent way to generate some tarrific to your site especially if it is new
I agree links are link no matter what. Its just that,reciprocal and one-way links are weighted differently.
I haven’t been a webmaster for very long nor do I spend the needed time to properly optimize but I started last year at about the same time as a competitor of mine. I noticed this competitor because we were both stuck between 150 to 160 for the most competitive phrase in Google for our niche. I also noticed that my competitor appeared to have joined a “link farm†or so I thought and I noticed them getting hundreds of links each month and adding hundreds to their site. I thought to myself “I’ll do better then them in the long run because Google will pick up on what they’re doingâ€. I was dead wrong though as I’m no better than 50’s or 60’s for our best phrase and my competitor is in the top 5 of each search engine and has been for the past few months now.
You mean to say that if you want to provide your visitors with something useful available on some other site then you will first ask the other webmaster to add a reciprocal link to your site to make things look natural? That's not natural as I see it. What you are talking about is a business relation between these two companies. You promote me and I promote you... Reciprocal linking for search engine purposes is frowned upon but not otherwise. If you think that your site will get a direct benefit by exchanging links from some other site then go ahead and do it ... Who's stopping you? ( You get a direct increase in stats and google cannot stop you from getting visitors for your site...) Even Yahoo is open to such business proposals.(It's on their contact page) But if the site you are linking to is not presentable before your visitors, then think about it before exchanging links. Additionally most webmasters bury your link on a 11th resource page which is only linked from page 10 which is from page 9. This kind of linking won't be beneficial unless the site linking has a very good pr which is still flowing to 11th page coming from page 10 alone and so on. ( PR is why you are exchanging links...aren't you?) Some times you also see your link on page 1 which later flows down to page 11 as the webmaster keeps exchanging links and you don't even know about it. It may be useful in rare cases but not generally. regards jeet ( How long was I typing? There were 2 posts when I started.)
A mixture of one-way and reciprocal links is natural. 100% one way links is not natural. Reciprocal linking is certainly not frowned upon. One-way links may have more effect but reciprocal links are still valuable.
Again, do you mean that the page 11 page 10 links I mentioned earlier are useful in some way? All I am saying is that those types of recips are of no use. Bye jeet
Recips are very loosely weighted nowadays and often are worthless on many sites just simple doing it incorrectly. Think about how easy it is to spot reciprocal linking from, let's say, Google's standpoint. 1) All of the recip. pages are easy to identify, i.e. the URLs are often a dead giveaway as in "reciprocal-links.html, "reciprocal-links-2.html," etc. Many variations of this are spotted easily, even if you call them "resource" pages/sections. 2) On all of these pages, the links are set up the same - no variance or mixing up whatsoever. By this, I mean you have this: Link & Anchor text - description goes here... Link & Anchor text - description goes here... Link & Anchor text - description goes here... Link & Anchor text - description goes here... Get the picture? Very easy to spot and zap. 3) Often recips are nothing more than automated. And Google and other search engines know this. There's no "real" business or mutual working relationship between the two sites reciprocating. they ar simply trying to boost each other in the search engines. 4) Unnatural, Unnatural, unnatural....need I say it again. Ok.... unnatural. Reciprocal links were built and are being used erratically and many webmasters abuse this one method without one thought to other, more substantial methods of building quality links to their site. Example: I own several pharmacy sites from back in the day (5-6 years ago). i don't really market them anymore b/c they have substantial links pointing to them already and I add content to them bi-monthly. I get automated reciprocal link emails from dumbass webmasters in the poker industry wanting to exchange links between their poker site and my pharmacy/health sites. I often write back with a simple: "HOW MUCH MORE IGNORANT CAN YOU BE" and give them several links to explain the ill effects of linking very non-related sites within two industries already under fire. Recip directories are worse than the recent hay-day of directories scraping dmoz and each other just to build pages of links. IF you are going to reciprocate, do it within content that is specifically written for the other site, do it sparingly, and really, REALLY mix it up. So, in a couple of paragraphs of text include a link back to the site, but wrap text around it. Even using the old site A, linking to site C, and site B links back to site A, etc, etc. if they are all on diff. IPs is better than 80% of the crap I see that are reciprocal linking sites. Just my 2 cents (or 4 cents rather)
Thanks for all reply. I just think that how to get 1 way link and I found some way. 1. Request link from some stupid webmaster that own their site with PR6+ and don't know value of it so they will not require for reciprocal. Just kidding. 2. Buy link - basic way but effective if you've money enough. Kidding again, most of us cannot buy all links we wants it. 3. Make very useful and free software that contains anchor text link point back to owner sites. Really smart way and looks natural, isn't it? Site-sift is an example.
Very interesting. Thanks for the insight. I have also seen websites rank very high in google that seem to acquire a large number of links in a short period. It doesn't seem like google has penalized them.
Moneyfolk, Gaining large numbers of backlinks is no problem at all as long as they are natural. It depends on how they acquire them. An example is Nick Wilson's recent startup, Performancing.com. Previous to this venture he managed Threadwatch.org. But because of all of the buzz surrounding the new startup business, mainly blog industry centered, he received lots of natural a quick inbounds from hundreds, if not thousands, of news sites, blogs, and sites in general to his new site. So, this is an example of gaining lots of natural links fast. Jut look at Performancing.com in Alexa to get an idea of what I mean. For most webmasters though, creating this kind of buzz will never happen. If it did, we'd all be out of business because everyone would be popular. The quote you include above doesn't really say much, at least to me, since I don't know specifics. Like if the site with all the reciprocal links gained other, more natural links along the way or built a lot more pages within their site, how many varieties of anchor text they used with linking campaigns, and any other marketing may play into their better rankings. What I do know is that lots of reciprocal link neighborhoods got knocked out a little before Jagger, during Jagger, and a little after as well. Simply put, playing the reciprocal link exchange game is for "disposable" sites. Anyone willing to risk their "bread and butter" sites only to turn them into a reciprocal link farm is simply going to Vegas and "throwing the dice." I'm not that kind of gambler, especially with sites making over 100k per year - no way.
OK...to paraphrase you are saying that recips are of no use? It think it's very difficult to establish yourself without recips. Are you doing only one way links and also links to directories that don't require recips? You are right - most websites will not get natural backlinks like your example. Also is google actually determining if your links are natural or not? Arrgggh ....so much confusion.
On all the forums I post on, I have heard no less than hundreds of viewpoints regarding the issue of reciprocal linking. It is enough to make your head spin! Anyway, I do have a small resources directory on my site, but I am very selective on what sites I include in it. The main requirement is that the website must contain content similar to my website., i.e. photo sites and classified ad sites. It is not a general, link farm type of page. The reciprocal linking to my site makes up a very, very small portion of my total links. I don't think all link pages are bad, if done correctly and not just accepting any site willing to exchange. I have come across some very informative resource directories which I feel provide great information to visitors since they contain similar content. I happen to be included on the links page of a photography website with a pr7. I actually get lots of visitors from this directory. Anyway, I think we need to realize that there are other purposes to resource pages on websites other than its effect on search engine rankings. JMO. In a perfect world ALL my links would be natural, one-way content links on PR8 sites, but unfortunately I don't live in a perfect world so I have to do the best I can.
Everyone does it, even Google. At Google, on many, many pages they have links going to other companies they're partnered with and they list ones that have useful technology that might just benefit Google users. Here's one: http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/software_principles.html At the bottom, Google links to Lavasoft's Ad-Aware site. Likewise, Lavasoft links back to them here: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/news/press/google.shtml and several other places. But, the point is that it all looks naturally done by a person and by hand. It's also wrapped around lots of useful targeted content, which helps a lot. Do the same! We do, and it definitely helps a lot. Some of our linking partners are similar industry, non-compete sites, where we've arranged a relationship to link to each other, but becaue there is a real relationship there, or if we are discussing a product or service they just might handle. Looks very natural in general, all wrapped with text, and never duplicated on other sites. Do this 30-40 times and do it well and you can see the real benefits here. Good partnerships might be. SEO site recipricates with a hosting site hosting site reciprocates with a design site fishing site reciprocates with a boat or touring site Get them to see the value in trading "content with links" instead of text, don't duplicate it, and see where it takes you...
TrueMarketing, good info... thanks! Rep added. I've heard the same... recip. link have x value but one way links have xxx value! They are harder to get but do more for your site than recip. links. If y'all are ready to go to the next step... any suggestions on how to get recip. or one way links??? For recip links I use linkmarket net. For one ways I was told article directories was the way to go. I'm going to try this next week and see how it works. Anyone else with some ideas/suggestions on how to obtain links?? Thanks! Lyte
If you write an informative article related to your website you can get it published on hundreds of sites with a link on each one.