Reciprocal Links: Good Or Bad?

peter_d · 08-13-2007, 08:10 PM

As this article points out, the answer to that question isn't straightforward.

http://searchengineland.com/070813-071742.php

Key point: it really depends on your niche.

Quote:

ou simply cannot make any sort of absolute statement as to what constitutes reciprocal link spam. Nor can you say that reciprocal links are always good, always bad, always suspicious, always helpful. They are never any of these, and they are always all of these. What you have to do is look at each case, at each site, and recognize the logical natural linking potential and reciprocity tendencies.

Jexley · 08-13-2007, 08:57 PM

As with almost everything diaphanous and ambiguous in this SEO world, when it can't be clearly defined, there can't be any hard and fast rules for or against it.

It's like when I used to run off into the wilderness as a kid and my old man would tell me to use my best judgement.

"Does that mean I can swim the rapids?" I'd ask.
"Absolutely. Just remember to ask yourself if the thrill is worth risking death for" he'd reply.

Not that a bad backlink will kill you, but the sentiment's there I hope. Trust your gut (not heart or wallet) and you probably won't go wrong.

coolguy27 · 08-14-2007, 08:52 AM

As what Peter said depends on your niche...

For me as long as it is a quality reciprocal links it is okay.... and I prefer building more one way links (IBL) rather than reciprocal...

Mihai · 08-15-2007, 02:17 AM

I always try to have something like 75% one way and 25% reciprocal in order to be as natural as possible. Keeping careful track of your link building campaign will surely help.

UBF · 08-15-2007, 04:10 AM

I build them for 2 main reasons:

1) To get inner pages indexed and ranked faster
2) If I belive that the link exchange will drive traffic from the site

Mihai · 08-15-2007, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UBF

I build them for 2 main reasons:

1) To get inner pages indexed and ranked faster
2) If I belive that the link exchange will drive traffic from the site

Very good reasons for reciprocal link building.

dartdesign · 08-15-2007, 04:45 AM

Reciprocal links are important and have the same values as one way links. It doest matter how relevant are links, because there is no algorithms that can determine is it relevant or not !!!

Cornbread · 08-15-2007, 04:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dartdesign

Reciprocal links are important and have the same values as one way links. It doest matter how relevant are links, because there is no algorithms that can determine is it relevant or not !!!

You have no idea what the algo can or cannot determine and recipricol links are not as good as one-way inbound links.

dartdesign · 08-15-2007, 06:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cornbread

You have no idea what the algo can or cannot determine and recipricol links are not as good as one-way inbound links.

Ok, let me explain you this way, it is very close to logic and i am not sure how this myth regarding relevant link was born.

For example you have 200 reciprocal links, and another 2000 one way links to your website. There are more than 80 000 000 000 websites listed in Google for example. Do you think that there is algorithm that can check that much and to check is link repicprocal, one way or is it relevant or not ? AI is still far in the future, and the most simple SEO methods are the best. Link building as much as possible, but only good neighborhood, because bad links are easy to detect.

Mihai · 08-15-2007, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dartdesign

Ok, let me explain you this way, it is very close to logic and i am not sure how this myth regarding relevant link was born.

For example you have 200 reciprocal links, and another 2000 one way links to your website. There are more than 80 000 000 000 websites listed in Google for example. Do you think that there is algorithm that can check that much and to check is link repicprocal, one way or is it relevant or not ? AI is still far in the future, and the most simple SEO methods are the best. Link building as much as possible, but only good neighborhood, because bad links are easy to detect.

Google has algorithms and hardware beyond your imagination. I am not talking about big daddy kind of stuff but things that are going to be available for normal people in about 10 years from now.

dartdesign · 08-15-2007, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mihai

Google has algorithms and hardware beyond your imagination. I am not talking about big daddy kind of stuff but things that are going to be available for normal people in about 10 years from now.

Yes things from other planet. Ok, i may not right, but just make a search for same topic in Matt Cutts blog, may be he is not right too ....

sanderson · 08-15-2007, 07:45 AM

Not good at all to put those links on your homepage.

referencement · 08-15-2007, 09:01 AM

Reciprocal links have two purpose : drive traffic and search engines ranking.
- reciprocal links from related web sites and with high page rank can help to increase your page rank and your Google ranking.
one way links from related web sites are just more important than reciprocal links but they did not mean that reciprocal links are bad.
- these reciprocal links can drive quality traffic to your web site from related web sites.
- there is a strange things from (seo expert) they advice you to use out bound links to get more links. on the other hand, they tell you that reciprocal links are not important.