Hi Guys, One of our sites has a resource directory with about 70-80 links that are reciprocated. Many of the sites are PR 3-4 and are not related to the theme of the site (these were there when site was purchased). We noticed that about 15 of these links are to sites that are not great quality (very little content, and some are very spammy adsense sites), though I wouldn't say any are "bad neighborhood" sites per se. What would happen if we stopped reciprocating with these 15 sites, took their links down, and then added 5-10 new one way outgoing links (non-reciprocated) to very theme related sites with PRs of 6-7. Do you think the sites ranking would go up or down? Energizer
It's a possibility, but there isn't enough information to make an educated guess. In theory, yes, you'd go up in rankings. But we'd need to know the age of your site and some of the demographics of the links you're going to be purchasing...i mean...getting because your site is a great resource! Do you have excellent rankings now? Probably not. So any changes at this point will be a change in the right direction. One way links are great and will usually help tremendously, if purchased and implemented right. On a side note, don't worry about the PR of the links you're going to be receiving, check their rankings, check how many pages they have indexed, check the quality of their incoming links, check their SEO. If those look good, then it will be a good link to get, regardless of PR factor.
Well, if you remove links on your website, you will not be penalized and most likely it will do a little good for your website. However, if you remove links pointing to your website that are related to your site, then that will definitely ruin you. If those links aren't related to your site, then I have no comment, it can go both ways (Check if Google considers that page to link to your website by typing in link:www.yoursite.com)!!
I think removing your backlinks is a bad idea. If those webmasters find that you are removing their links, they'll remove yours, and then what happens to your link popularity? Why would you want to replace rec links with one way out going links? If the sites you are linking to don't link back, what good is it for you?
Hi guys, Thanks for the feedback! I decided to stop reciprocating with the sites and instead got one way links in the same amount to replace them. We are still not sure as whether to add good outgoing links, but I guess why not? I would think it would help the site visitors and google will probably rank the site a touch better... Energizer
G only shows a sampling of the links it knows of. The link command has little to no value in G. If the 15 sites ever catch on to the fact that you have removed their links they will remove yours and this might effect you. If you have a good amount of incoming links then loosing 15 links shouldn't hurt your site. Not linking to sites that are off topic is a good thing IMO. Why bother keeping links that have nothing to do with your current theme.