Hi everyone, I was wondering what the general consensus was on reciprocal linking for SEO? Is it something that is outdated and no longer used? Or is it still very much alive? Please note I am talking about links between sites that: Same niche. Has unique good quality content. Links will be on a links page with 20 max links. Cheers, Hodge
I have a thought - maybe it's still good, but a lot of people got tired of it, so the rumor started that reciprocal linking no longer works. I know that I've reached nice position in Google search results mostly thanks to the link exchange.
Any link is good, I don't know why reciprocal links would be bad. It may have a smaller impact than 1-way links, but even that's just speculation.
No doubt, Google discounts for reciprocal links. Matt Cutt has clearly mentioned that Google hate reciprocal backlinks
Maybe and maybe not....Because I have encountered many LE partners doing some nasty stuffs removing my links on their link page. @dbadwal there no such posts that Google hates reciprocal linking... The hated word is excessive reciprocal linking...Not the reciprocal linking. LOL.
Manually exchanging links with other websites is a slow and tedious process that will take many months of hard work to increase your search engine ranking - not to mention robbing you from focusing on your other important duties.
Reciprocal linking is a good practice but it can be tedious as it is a manual process where you have to contact site owners and get their permission to do so. That being said, it definitely helps if you can do it, especially if you do link exchanges with sites in your niche that have high PR.
"Outdated"... Well, there are other ways and modern tactics. But, I guess, there's no ground to say "It doesn't work any longer". It may just not be the most effective way, but having its place under the sun, still.
It's interesting to see that the opinion is split about this. I personally think that reciprocal linking is still part of SEO, it's just people have a bad impression of it due to the fact too many people have this mentality that any link is a link worth having. I believe that reciprocal linking between sites that have unique content, updates regularly, and actually have RELATED content will benefit both parties, not just in SEO but traffic. That said it is just my opinion which is why I started this thread.