In terms of quality, is an industry related reciprocal link better than, equal to, or less than a one-way link from a directory? Assume PR is the same in both cases. Your opinion and why?
There is no definite answer because nobody knows for a fact - they are only assumptions. I've had sites that are PR6 and ranked top 10 for keywords with 100,000+ OVT - the links are mostly reciprocal and from my own websites, i.e. with the same C-class IP. Personally, I'd go for whichever has good relevancy and a better trust factor. Reciprocal is ok if you're not linked back from the same pages.
It is standard industry FACT that one way links get more weight then reciprocal links, has been that way for years. If you can rank #1 in google for a term with only reciprocal links then the term isnt that competitive One way links are much natural in the sense that someone is voting for your site. Reciprocal links are essentially a scheme to "exchange" votes.
Actually it would depend on several issues 1. PR of page with Recip link back to your site 2. The overall value of the directory 3. Keyword term. I would venture to guess that tolkiens' luck in his rankings by his own internal linking and reciprocals is due to the fact there is not a very highly competitive amount of pages and / or it is low traffic keyword term. 4. Anchor text used to link to your site. 5. Amount of links on the page pointing to your page. All in all just publish original worthwhile content, get some traffic,and one way links will find their way to your site over time, natural in nature, the kind search engines love, and you'll one day have the rankings you want. Not much more to it than that. Peace
manageyourlinks: I'm not going to argue with you, but is your definition of one-way links being better than reciprocal as a "fact" is as clear as 1+1 = 2? Because I can't find a black and white statement from Google that they give a higher weightage to one-way links. Peace: if you read my post carefully, you'd realize that I mentioned it's a search phrase with 100,000+ OVT
Ok, consider this. All things being equal (relevance, anchor text, etc), what if the one-way link was from a directory whereby the page where the link is posted (resides) is a PR2, versus a reciprocal whereby the link given is a PR2, but the link received is a PR4. What is better in that scenario? The reciprocal or one-way? Your thoughts?
Google is not going to tell you anything about there algorithm, with regards to what gets more weight. You cant rely on them to make it a FACT. Maybe I shouldnt use the word fact for the technical basis of it, but if you have been in the SEO game for any extended amount of time then you will understand that One way natural links are weighted much higher then exchanged, schematic, reciprocal links. This article might shed some light. http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2006/12/building-link-based-popularity.html
Precisely! It's an industry "understanding" and not a "fact" because we weren't meant to manipulate search results with SEO, e.g. that's why the toolbar PR is only updated every 3~4 mths. As long as it's not an official acknowledgement from the search engines, there is a possibility that one-way links from directories maybe discounted one day. edit: sorry for going slightly off-topic but I think it's best to have all these considerations in your linkbuilding strategy.
PR isnt a metric to gage whether which link would be more useful imo. Which site is more relevant to your site? Which site would be more useful to your users? Those are the kinds of questions you should ask. A 1 way link off a porn site pointing to your apple selling site will be worth less then a reciprocated link from a blog on How to Grow Apples. Relevancy is the key factor here, not PR.
In general I would go for the one-way link, but that's because I don't do any reciprocals anyhow (except with VERY useful sites, or VERY on topic sites). But if they are both pr2 I'd say they are not worth paying for - nor worth fussing about. The one way link from the directory (if free) should just be taken if you want to go to the trouble of asking for it. The reciprocal should only be done if you really feel your visitors would be served by linking to their site. Link building isn't about the one or the other anyhow. It's about getting quality, relevant linkS (plural) to your site. I agree that Sem-advance makes the best points in this thread so far.
Black and white statement from Google regarding links??? This was 10 seconds work to hit my bookmarks. http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769 When your site is ready: Have other relevant sites link to yours. I think thats 100% black and white, concise, exact, clear, leaves little doubt, straight from Google and published live online for others to find their own thoughts... but often in life it's what is not said, that matters or shows the answer, if you notice it does not say: "and link back to those sites" Clearly one way links rule. ================================================= octane Didn't mean to steal your thoughts and please add in as more than one set of thoughts often helps others find the right conclusion. kh7 Thank you for the support...I hope the above further aides that as well.