Thread: Don't waste your time on reciprocal links

In recent weeks I have just about given up on reciprocal link exchanges.

For my business I have created a blog, well 2 blogs [1 for clients 1 for holidaymakers] and I am hoping that these blogs will generate a lot of back links, that will benefit my pages because each major page is linked from the blog.


Reciprocal links carry very little weight nowadays, and the search engines can easily find if it's reciprocal or one-way links.

Agree or Disagree - and why?

If by reciprocal linkage, you mean where there is a page full of links, those are not worth having!

Now if you reciprocate on the blog by having main page to main page links, those are not seen as reciprocal links by se's.
EG: You put a link on your blog to my site and I put a link on my site to your blog, that is good linkage.
I do a lot of link exchanges this way for my blogs and it helps in backlinks, which then helps in serp's.

Originally Posted by DarrenC

In recent weeks I have just about given up on reciprocal link exchanges.

For my business I have created a blog, well 2 blogs [1 for clients 1 for holidaymakers] and I am hoping that these blogs will generate a lot of back links, that will benefit my pages because each major page is linked from the blog.


Reciprocal links carry very little weight nowadays, and the search engines can easily find if it's reciprocal or one-way links.

Agree or Disagree - and why?

Disagree!!! What Google is interested in is natural linking and reciprocal linking has always been a natural and legitimate linking method way before Google came into the picture. That being said, having solely reciprocal links is NOT natural, so ensure you can acquire natural one way links (solicited or unsolicited). Additionally, reciprocal links from similar niche sites is also good for your site.

Easiest way to get one way backlinks is from other blogs.
Write a nice article, or have one written, and submit to blogs.
There are a few services on the net for getting articles into blogs.

Or go to DP and find blog posters.
I used one to write an article for me and post it on 200+ blogs.

Originally Posted by iowadawg

I used one to write an article for me and post it on 200+ blogs.

... are those blogs niche specific or pretty much general interest?

General blogs.
About half of them have pr from 1 to 6.
Never checked, but he told me different ips.

Object is to get the backlinks first.
Visitors are a distant second.

Originally Posted by iowadawg

Object is to get the backlinks first.
Visitors are a distant second.

Understandably ... but we need to flip those around!!!

It depends really. I have had a link exchange on my site where I use to get people submitting a link exchange where they were putting my link on a page on there's where nobody could hardly get to. I stopped accepting exchanges because of that. I also get emails, and I just ignore them as I have stopped accepting link exchanges that way also. I find it's much more bother than what it's worth.

The only way that I link exchange is if I find a site that lists sites like mine and have all my competitors listed and is also very popular and asks for a link exchange to get listed.

^ Yeah I love those emails, I get a bunch that say "I linked to you so now link to me" I'm like and you are who? Sad that this is the best idea they came up with to get a link LOL

The bad thing about them emails is that they don't even link to your first sometimes. So in other words, it's a way of spamming people. If they get accussed from spamming they can easily say that they emailed you just for a link exchange, but truthfully I think some of them only pretend they want a link exchange when infact they give their link in the email so that you can visit their site. Although, if they do get people wanting to do a link exchange then they will probably accept it or will just not reply to the emails.

I've had this before I stopped accepting email link exchanges where someone asks for a link exchange where I had to put their link on my site first and when I email them back saying that I have done it, they would never reply or put my link on their site, meaning that they were just wasting my time or pretending they wanted a link exchange when infact they just wanted me to look at their site on false pretenses.

On points brought up in this thread...

SPAM is SPAM is SPAM. It doesn't matter if someone e-mails you out of the blue to trade links or drink recipes, it's SPAM, by definition.

Reciprocal link exchanges can be detected by the search engines, as can three way link exchanges. Mathematically, it's very simple to detect.

Reciprocal link exchanges with websites that deal with similar topics (related content) can be very beneficial. These links are related and, therefore, useful. For example, if I'm viewing a website that sells car stereos and they have a recip link exchange with a website that sells high performance engine parts, there is a higher probability that I will click on that link than if it were a link to a wedding dress maker.

The thing with most of these link exchange emails is that they also say they have been to your site and give your site's domain name or url so that it looks like they really have.

Originally Posted by john933

The thing with most of these link exchange emails is that they also say they have been to your site and give your site's domain name or url so that it looks like they really have.

Software scrapes your website for all of that information and it's automated. Spammers dont like to waste time.

Just got one this morning.
TO a directory I do not own!

Originally Posted by DarrenC

In recent weeks I have just about given up on reciprocal link exchanges.

For my business I have created a blog, well 2 blogs [1 for clients 1 for holidaymakers] and I am hoping that these blogs will generate a lot of back links, that will benefit my pages because each major page is linked from the blog.


Reciprocal links carry very little weight nowadays, and the search engines can easily find if it's reciprocal or one-way links.

Agree or Disagree - and why?

Agree if the link passes PR, disagree if the site requires reciprocal links that can also pass high traffic to your site.

reciprocal actually lowers your PR i read somewhere

really? or selling text links will really lower your pr...

i read it in some forum forgot where or blog

My guess wuld be 1 way links work best

ive red that in the past to dominant force

but how can google know paid links or not

Reciprocals can be very good if its related traffic you need, but they've long since lost their SEO effectiveness. One-ways definitely rule as far as that goes.

Trackbacks could be construed as a reciprocal link but it does give you more traffic.

Do MSN and Yahoo treat reciprocal links the same way as Google?

A link is a link is a link! Don't worry about it.

Originally Posted by DarrenC

In recent weeks I have just about given up on reciprocal link exchanges.

For my business I have created a blog, well 2 blogs [1 for clients 1 for holidaymakers] and I am hoping that these blogs will generate a lot of back links, that will benefit my pages because each major page is linked from the blog.


Reciprocal links carry very little weight nowadays, and the search engines can easily find if it's reciprocal or one-way links.

Agree or Disagree - and why?

My view on reciprocal links is that if they are from sites which somehow relate to yours then they are good. If they have nothing relevant to yours then don't bother. Also, trade just one link. Side wide links hold no extra value and could possibly hurt your rankings.

Reciprocal links are still valued especially if it is from an authority and relevant site in your niche. Aside from the targeted traffic you can get, it is still being weighed (although not as much as natural and one-way links) in PR building.

Just remember a rule of thumb: everything done excessively isn't healthy

I have used 3 way reciprocal link successfully with some of my sites, I agree it can be a pain finding the right link partner.

I think that's a better idea. The problem with reciprocal links is that after a while your link gets deleted without notice while you keep somebody else's link on your site.

reciprocal links loses their shine

Three ways are good & undetectable. Especially when the links are contextual and come from within an article.

Disagree,reciprocal links worth for getting ranked well in google...

Originally Posted by andyel

Disagree,reciprocal links worth for getting ranked well in google...

Recip links IMO are about the worst type of link one can get.

If not it will not be long before this actually hurts you. Google especially stays on top of these things and views it as trying to fool the search engines.

The only positive side of reciprocal linking is if its done with a more popular and relevant site with heavy traffic - you get chances of drawing targeted traffic.

Reciprocals from RELEVANT sites are good!

When the anchor text (inbound) matches your key words, its a bonus.

Recips from "link farms" or known spam repositories (xxx sites listed) are BAD.

Recips to/from sites lower in PR than yours = NEUTRAL

Recip to/from site with higher PR = POSITIVE

I've been told that the algorithm counts the latter higher in value, VS. links from lower PR or PR '0'

I'm not using reciprocal much, but it doesn't mean that it was useless..
They are still worth, but it depends on the site you link exchange with..

Reciprocal linking with theme related sites still works.

As far as blogs are concerned,the best way to optimize them is to keep posting regularly.

Reciprocal links most definitely can and are detected. They don't carry as much weight as a one way link. 3 Way linking is better but not the miracle way but is better than 2 way linking.

--
Cameron

Originally Posted by HostQuack

Reciprocal links most definitely can and are detected. They don't carry as much weight as a one way link. 3 Way linking is better but not the miracle way but is better than 2 way linking.

--
Cameron

How? Exactly how is 3 way linking better than reciprocal linking?

Im not 100% sure. I have done quite a bit of reading about pagerank and topics about 3 way linking and thats what it appears to me. It just passes page rank around and comes back to you and is "supposed" to be better than 2 way linking. Just sharing what I have read and my conclusion on the topic.

--
Cameron

Regardless of how effective it may or not be these days i will always continue to occasionally exchange links with sites that are closely related to my niche i dont spend any length of time on it so that is not really an issue for me but long term i believe the method still has some value.

Agree. Recipricols are only good for direct traffic through clicks.