Can you get any value out of reciprocal links?

[Boxby]

I hear that general advice about reciprocal links not being valued highly by google. But as I understand it, you are not penalised for reciprocal links, just not given a lot/if any credit for them.

And I also hold strongly the belief that you link for traffic first and everything else second.

There are a lot of websites out there where a reciprocal link would be beneficial to us and the other party from a traffic perspective, so my question is is there a good or a bad way to do this?

Many thanks
Sandra

 

[Gordon N]

Right, looking left and right - can't see any of the fiesty SEO boys around just now so I can nip in and give you my opinion on this one before it explodes into another 'heated' debate! :tongue_smilie:

It is my understanding that one way links are recognised as more valuable by Google et all, however as I have said on many's an occasion now - don't let SEO take over your site! I am not denying the importance and value of good quality optimisation, but bear in mind that the site is for humans first and foremost. If a reciprocal link is going to help your customers, yourself or an associated business (in that order!) then why exclude it for the purposes of SEO?

I am getting worried that many are developing SEO related OCD these days! :001_rolleyes:

(to the SEO guys - don't rip me, the above is my understanding and opinion as a designer/developer! )

 

[Boxby]

Hi Gordon

Yep, this is the angle that I am coming from. The links are for traffic. I want traffic, they want traffic so reciprocal linking works well form a business perspective. But some of these websites are rated quite highly on some key terms that interest me, so if there is a way to gain any drop of SEO juice out of it, then I would be keen not to pass that opportunity by.

 

[Employment Law Services]

Right, looking left and right - can't see any of the fiesty SEO boys around just now so I can nip in and give you my opinion on this one before it explodes into another 'heated' debate! :tongue_smilie:

Brilliant!! :lol:

I am not denying the importance and value of good quality optimisation, but bear in mind that the site is for humans first and foremost. If a reciprocal link is going to help your customers, yourself or an associated business (in that order!) then why exclude it for the purposes of SEO?

I couldn't agree more and if your reciprocal is with a relevant site with a good pagerank then it's a double bonus!!

Great post Gordon!!

 

[Adventurelife]

I hear that general advice about reciprocal links not being valued highly by google. But as I understand it, you are not penalised for reciprocal links, just not given a lot/if any credit for them.

And I also hold strongly the belief that you link for traffic first and everything else second.

There are a lot of websites out there where a reciprocal link would be beneficial to us and the other party from a traffic perspective, so my question is is there a good or a bad way to do this?

Many thanks
Sandra

Like most things it is not straight forward as it depends on the business and the business model.

Some businesses need huge traffic therefore need to have lots of links and do not want to swap

Other businesses are happy to swap if they judge that the benefit of doing so for their customers outweighs SEO considerations

I always take the view of " would this be useful to my clients" and that drives the linking

Big assumption coming :001_unsure:

I suspect most businesses who are trying to create revenue online need a balance in their link profile that ensures they help their clients but they also have enough one way stuff to drive rankings

Peter

 

[stuarty]

Yep, this is the angle that I am coming from. The links are for traffic. I want traffic, they want traffic so reciprocal linking works well form a business perspective.

Personally I don't spend any time on reciprocal linking as I've never seen any benefit. I can get more traffic from a one way quality link than I can from 100 recips. I've tried placing links on massive traffic sites like football sites and still failed to generate traffic between sites. The problem is that most site owners tend to place reciprocal links on their "links" pages. How many times have you went to a website to look at it's links page?

If you want to see how well reciprocal links generate traffic then this is what I do to test the waters. (You can try each part on 3 different sites or on the same site to compare results.)

1. Get your reciprocal link placed on your link buddy's website on their links page.

2. Get your reciprocal link placed on their front page in the footer area.

3. Get your reciprocal link placed on their front page in the first paragraph.

Try it for a couple of weeks and compare the traffic from each of the 3 scenarios. If you want to share your results with us then even better.

 

[Employment Law Services]

Interesting way of looking at it Stuarty!!

 

[PeterHoggan]

Here are a few things to consider when requesting a reciprocal link.

Take some time researching quality pages that are complimentary to yours and beneficial to your visitors.

Place a link from a page on your site to a complimentary page on the target site.

After you have placed a link on your own site contact the owner of the target site. If there is a contact phone number use this rather than email, you will get a far better success rate if you can talk to the webmaster personally and explain why you are linking and the benefits it would afford to your visitors and the potential traffic for him. Give him the URL of the page you are linking from and ask if the link text you have used is acceptable.

Ask for a link back, give a URL where you feel a link would be appropriate and the anchor text you desire.

Use the phone or the good old fashioned postman in preference to email, it’s a little bit more time consuming but it will give you a better result than the hundreds of automated reciprocal link requests that flood email boxes.

 

[Terry]

I'll keep it simple

RL won't help your SERPS but it will generate traffic by people clicking on it. Of course if your link is buried away on a site not many people are going to be clicking.

 

[Rickwood Portpatrick]

To look at the links thing from another angle, we have a few links going from our website to places of interest e.g. Culzean Castle for the benefit of potential guests looking to find out a bit about the area.
As some of these links are one way,could this adversely affect our google ranking?
regards

 

[h2odesigns]

To look at the links thing from another angle, we have a few links going from our website to places of interest e.g. Culzean Castle for the benefit of potential guests looking to find out a bit about the area.
As some of these links are one way,could this adversely affect our google ranking?
regards

Hi Fred,
These one way links should not have an affect on your ranking. When linking sites try linking into your site and from sites that are highly positioned in the search engines and that have lots of links themselves, i.e. directory sites. As mentioned before, if it does not benefit the search engines at least it gets people to find your site (which is the aim of the exercise anyway.)
Helen

 

[Gordon N]

Hi Fred,
These one way links should not have an affect on your ranking. When linking sites try linking into your site and from sites that are highly positioned in the search engines and that have lots of links themselves, i.e. directory sites. As mentioned before, if it does not benefit the search engines at least it gets people to find your site (which is the aim of the exercise anyway.)
Helen

Sorry Helen but I couldn't disagree more. I will be the first to admit that I am not an SEO guru , I follow some blogs (such as Matt Cutts) etc to keep me as up to date as I need to be from a design and development perspective. I am sure a couple of our resident SEO experts will be along shortly with their professional take in this....

Back in 2006 (I think!) Google made some changes to their algorythm that depreciated the value of reciprocal links. This was due to an increase in directory based sites that added little to no value to the authority of the site being linked to. It is also my inderstanding that the majority of directory sites are of no real benefit these days, thats not to say all - but most.

If you think about it, it does kind of make sense. If 500 different websites are linking to you independantly via one-way links your site is being recommended as a useful resource, especially if these sites are related to your field or subject. If you were to have 500 reciprocal links not only would your site be jam packed full of links leaving little room for content, but all it shows is that you managed to contact 500 people and arrange for a link to be put into place in order to try and improve your ranking.

There is value in reciprocal linking if it provides an improved user experience or benefits the visitors to your site. If your looking for improved search engine placement the focus should be (in my opinion anyway) one-way incoming links from reputable, authoritive sites related to the field/subject area of the site concerned.

That's my take on things anyway, I am sure quite rightly others will have their own.

 

[h2odesigns]

Sorry Gordon, Fred was asking if his one way linking would be harming his Google ranking. I merely answered the question based on a one way linking scenario and if he were to do this to link to his site from sites that would benefit him rather than not. I wasn't trying to say that this would be reciprocal linking. I am familiar with directory sites, reciprocal linking and Google which is why it was not in my discussion.

 

[Gordon N]

Fair one Helen, could see that on re-reading it!

 

[h2odesigns]

That's ok Gordon!