I’m not a fan of reciprocal linking. The way to build trust & authority with Google is through 1-way inbound linking, and the judicious use of outbound linking to topically related sites.
Reciprocal linking was a technique used a few years ago as an easy way to build link popularity & search engine ranking. A common technique was to build a web directory within your site for the sole purpose of reciprical linking. But, with the sophistication of search engine algorithms today…reciprical linking is not worth the effort. Here’s why…
Reciprocal linking could be like shooting yourself in the foot. Especially, if you’re identified as being in the wrong “neighborhood” of related sites and/or low quality sites. If that’s the case, then don’t count on ranking for your keywords anytime soon. Here’s how you can see what neighborhood you’re associated with: Do a Google search for [related:www.yoursite.com] without the brackets. Do you see anything unrelated. If so, you’ll probably want to fix that.
Some people say that it depends how valuable the reciprocal link is.
Reciprocal linking isn’t really dead. But for what it’s worth, I highly discourage the time & effort for reciprocal linking unless the site is topically related to yours, and/or for the social networking relationship.
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I’m glad to see someone put in print something I’ve been feeling for a while. Not only is reciprocal linking not worth the effort, I feel it can cheapen a site, unless the links are truly relevent to the site.