User Comments

1. 

   3/19/09

   infinito

   Reciprocal links are not bad at all when acquired naturally. For instance, if I found out that a certain website linked to my site without my knowing on its page content not necessarily on its home page and if I saw that my link was placed on a great content then most likely I would link back to the same page. Bottom line is you need to provide high quality content to your visitors to gain links and vice versa. I recently read that Google is now discounting reciprocal linking through link pages as this strategy tends to manipulate the search engine ranking but no longer now as Google had made sure to change their algorithm discounting this type of tactic. This new development from Google made me thought for a while on what to do to my link pages. And since my link pages URLs were keyword-based relating to my niche, I now need to create content based on these keywords.
   
   As to your question on what should you do to those link request from companies, I suggest you ignore them and focus on writing relevant content for your site that must be valuable to your site visitors and I assure links will keep coming on to your site.
   
   However, you can still reply to them asking them for a page exchange instead. What does this mean? They write content then include your link within that content of course using your anchor text, in return you will do the same. That would look natural in the eyes of the search engine.
   
   I hope it helps. If you have still doubts, google it or you can email me at alex dot amadure at gmail dot com.

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2. 

   3/19/09

   timethief

   Exchanging relevant, high-quality reciprocal links (two way) with other related sites is a method of driving targeted traffic to your site. However, this strategy is not touted as it was in the past. In the last Google update, reciprocal links were one of the targets of the search engine's latest filter. Therefore we must exercise caution when agreeing to reciprocal link exchanges.
   
   Search engines value non-reciprocal (one way)links very highly. They are what every blog needs. Non-reciprocal links get highest values when (1) they originate from the relevant and high-ranking web pages, and also (2) if the anchor text within the link is one of the keywords of your web page that it links to.
   
   Understanding Backlinks
   onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/understanding-backlinks/
   Understanding Reciprocal and Non-Reciprocal Links
   onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2008/11/09/understanding-reciprocal-and-non-recip...

   [reply]
3. 

   3/19/09

   lenablonsky

   Thank you Infinito and Timethief for taking the time to give me such informative answers. I can see I will have to do some rethinking and re...acting on these links!

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   1. 

      3/19/09

      timethief

      You're welcome. I see many bloggers every day making low value reciprocal link exchanges with sites that are not related to their own. Hopefully, the word will get out and linking practices improve.
      Best wishes for happy blogging.
4. 

   3/19/09

   buzzed

   to have a look at what Google wants (as far as they will let you know) try www.google.com/webmasters/
   
   I think that if you do what you would normally do and link to people and them link to you, like your friends, I think Google would look at that more understandingly. They are not stupid and know that reciprocal links are abused to a certain extent.

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5. 

   3/19/09

   Opus6

   Great discussion. I am in a blogging club to increase Technorati Authority and we have been posting reciprocal links. I'm already high on Google, so that's not a problem. Although maybe not for individual posts.

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   1. 

      3/19/09

      timethief

      @Opus6
      I have rarely received traffic from Technorati and although I'm still a member I'm not holding my breath. This post may be helpful to you:
      Technorati: The Six Month Link Window
      onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2008/03/16/technorati-the-six-month-link-window/