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February 21, 2008

Is There Anything Wrong With Reciprocal Linking?

We've asked this a lot, but it happens to be a question that concerns a lot of webmasters. A webmaster specifically notices that he's been unable to get links now but it was a lot easier back in 2004 and believes it may be because of the search engines penalizing him.

Google Webmaster Central rep JohnMu chimes in to say that it depends how valuable the reciprocal link is.

I think the not-so-simple answer to this question is "would you do that if search engines didn't exist?"

If you link to a site and they decide to link back to you (perhaps even for an unrelated reason), those links may be providing value to your visitors and they may well be important to your site. However, just "exchanging links" for the sake of exchanging links (or even just as an attempt to influence search engines) is likely not to be that important to your visitors and for your site in general.

If you're doing it to manipulate the search rankings, it's not a good idea. If it's because value is being provided, by all means, go for it.

Forum discussion continues at Cre8asite Forums.



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posted Tamar Weinberg in Link Building at February 21, 2008 9:26 AM Comments (6)

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Comments

Trading links was maybe something that webmasters might have gone after a few years ago to build up their backlinks, these days I never need to even consider recip links with all the ways an individual can get backlinks to their site or blog.

 

Posted by No Name at February 21, 2008 20:23

I really appreciate the "would you do that if search engines didn't exist?" question. That is a great check and balance question.

When I get a client who wants to rank for a key phrase that I question. Such as a private company wanted to be ranked for a government specific search term like "the bureau of land management" or "California State government website".

I usually ask my self "If I was searching for [insert key phrase], would I want to be given [insert client URL] as a search result?"

 

Posted by Bart Gibby at February 22, 2008 12:55

their is no harm in exchanging links with other sites, but there are a lot of easier ways to get links other than exchanges.

 

Posted by No Name at February 24, 2008 09:27

Modest reciprocal linking is good, esp to high PR pages

 

Posted by Jacques Snyman at February 24, 2008 14:39

Link Exchanging is good in moderaton.

 

Posted by No Name at February 25, 2008 05:19

I have heard that reciprical linking is ok as long as you link exchange with high ranking websites. Commenting on Blogs, forums and submitting articles is far better for your site.

 

Posted by No Name at February 25, 2008 14:10

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