Reciprocal links - are they a good idea?

[jali]

:|

I have heard its good to link to other sites but can this sometimes be a bad idea???

Mandy x

 

[Utopia Waste]

I am by no means an expert but think you have to be very careful who you link to. Its best to stick to relevant sites that actually offer something useful for the type of people that are going to be visiting your website. As long as you stick to relevant sites it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[DarrenC]

Yes, you have to be careful who you link to, and reciprocal links don't appear to carry as much weight as one-way links.

 

[Aspect Investments]

Link to quality sites that are specific to your niche.

 

[kevgibbo]

I agree, if it's to a limited amount of high quality, relevant websites it could be worthwhile. Otherwise it's likely to have no benefit.

 

[JustOneUK]

:|

I have heard its good to link to other sites but can this sometimes be a bad idea???

It really makes no difference who you link to. You have to be in with a pretty bad crowd to get penalised and even then you have to be providing some pretty serious links (huge quantity or multiple domains). Getting links pointing to your own site is more important.

James.

 

[Chris Jones]

Good morning Mandy,
it would be far more beneficial to have as many links coming into your site as possible and if they have a decent page rank all the better. this will help to increase your page rank which is part of Googles ranking algorithm.
a reputable SEO company will include this in any service they offer you.
Chris X

 

[wood1e2]

reciprocal links have the problem of being associated with "link farms" which are a big no-no as far as search engines are concerened. "back-links" as others have said are what you want. Good quality directories, websites within your niche...

If you need any more info, PM me.

 

[office man]

its good to vary your links and a good selection of recipricals will do you no harm, try to think about relevance with your recipricals - only linking to other sites in your niche where possible. also try and get as many quality one way links into your site as you can again from yourniche if at all possible.

good luck

 

[jali]

Thank you all for you kind advice!!

Mandy

 

[sandpetra]

Reciprocal links are part of a natural link growth pattern and so on a small scale or between "related" sites are ok. Don't base your entire link campaign on recip links though or it will be a very slow (if not fruitless) assault on the search rankings (as many believe recip links are constantly devalued).

Don't waste time setting up a links page or directory when you could do something much more valuable like adding a blog to your site to make it easy for you to add great, original content to your site which will attract the best kind of links - ie one way, to your site.

It's also worth noting why would you want a link, anywhere, that doesn't send you traffic? I don't think I have ever had a referral from a recip links page, so it's natural to think these recip links pages are worth next to nothing in Google's eyes. Their purpose is to plain manipulate search engine results pages, and they obviously don't want you doing this (too much )

The only good thing about recip links is if youre site is not in Google, they can get you in it, if the page your link is on is in Google.

 

Link with relevant sites in the same or related industries, always look at the quality of the place you are linking to's links, I always avoid those with tons of unrelated links as they aren't fussy enough about who they link to, and I avoid links with companies who have pharmaceutical, gambling, dating or adult links.

For me my links are there just as much for my customers as to help with my ranking, I've found that good quality links can bring you loads of business, I get plenty of customers through referrals from links and I'm happy to provide my customers with access to equally interesting sites.

One way links are obviously a positive recognition of your site, but I have no time for all the 3 way linking approaches I get offering me a cr@p one way link from a rubbish site.

Other ways of getting good links back to your site are via articles and press releases, and of course forums.

 

It's also worth noting why would you want a link, anywhere, that doesn't send you traffic? I don't think I have ever had a referral from a recip links page, so it's natural to think these recip links pages are worth next to nothing in Google's eyes. Their purpose is to plain manipulate search engine results pages, and they obviously don't want you doing this (too much )

Not so sure I would agree with that Shaun.

I think there is some SEO value in outbound links provided they are relative to the page content you have them on.

have a page with 600 links going to estate agents in Kent,and that is basically the on page Optimization with very little other text.

this page ranks highly on google for most terms and towns in kent for estate agent related stuff.

Earl

 

[sandpetra]

Hi Earl

" I think there is some SEO value in outbound links provided they are relative to the page content you have them on." Agreed.

I'm not saying they are 100% pointless, but the time and energy it takes to get these devalued links could be spent better I think - that's ultimately what I mean.

And it's a fair bet to say in the future these kind of links will always be the first to get devalued or dropped completely from ranking algo's as the se's evolve.

Ultimately I think recip links are old news and susceptible to getting your site banjoed up and down in the serps at every algo modification (in the same way site-wide links are).

All I can say is I certainly don't rely on recip links for any campaign, and I don't reply to virtually any recip requests I get, but if people recip via my blog, I'll let them (as these arent the links I'm relying for ranking in serps).