Know-How Exchange : SEO/SEM

I assume you are referring to bulk reciprocal linking campaigns.

Reciprocal linking used to be the magic bullet but it's easy for search engines (SE) to detect the connection and determine that, if done in great numbers, the linking is an effort to rig SE results and is not done to improve the value of your web pages.

Additionally, many sites that aggressively pursue reciprocal linking utilize strategies that are considered spam by SEs. Google Bombing aside, the SEs know that you can't control who links to you but you can definitely control who you link to. If you link to spam sites you could be penalized for it.

So, to summarize and hopefully clarify my answer I'd have to say that reciprocal link can still help if it is done properly but it does not provide the same results that it once did. There are other strategies that, given an equal effort, return a greater return on investment.

Where it certainly wouldn't hurt you is if you reciprocate a link to a powerful and authoritative site. WSJ.com for example. If they reference your site then that is a powerful backlink. Reciprocating that link certainly wouldn't hurt you and referencing a valuable resource like wsj might actually help you - linking out correctly is also important. Google for example prefers sites that aren't PR hoarders.

For the average webmaster reciprocal linking could cause more harm than benefit though, from my experience, it does still have some value.

I hope this helps.

The extent by which you can exchange links is disputed. Matt Cutts, who is basically the Fed Chair of SEO updates, says that artificially linking to another site purely for the purpose of SEO is bad. Do search engines "figure this out"? Perhaps to an extent, especially if a page of a site is inundated with links but nothing else.

Basically, reciprocal links are not bad, but if you or your link exchange site are building links for the sake of linking, it really could hurt you. It is better to link to another site in the context of text that is relevant to that site itself.

Regards,
Michelle Greer
[URL delelted by staff]

To say "do not do it" is not realistic. Reciprocal links will occur whether you want them to or not. The point here is to do things in moderation. If you go out and quickly get 10,000 reciprocal links then you're going to stand out like a red flag for two reasons. 1. The speed that you obtained them and 2. You are obviously attempting to rig the search engine results.

But if you had thousands of backlinks and some of them are reciprocated to good, non-spam or sites then, no big deal. I just don't think the strategy is worthwhile as a marketing effort.

Keep in mind too that SEO is about generalities. There are no rules. If you emphatically state that "x" is true, invariably someone can show you a dozen examples which countermine the theory. So, when one of us states something is "true" what we mean is that it is generally true and is a good practice.

To say not to do something because the SEs consider it "unethical" or "bad" is not quite accurate. The question that should be asked is "will this hurt or help my business".

In the case of reciprocal linking I'd have to say (generally speaking ;-) that reciprocal linking campaigns are potentially harmful to your business and linking to known "undesirable" sites is absolutely (generally speaking ;-) can have harmful effects.

-Greg Hill
[URL deleted by staff] Search Engine Optimization Company
Trinity Search Engine Marketing