cnvi - 4:21 pm on Aug 29, 2006 (gmt 0)

this is a tough room! ;)

I think the point domaindrivers was trying to make is that reciprocal linking existed before terms such as "link popularity" existed.

Back in the late 90's, I also realized a great way to produce traffic was through linking with like minded sites.

Then Google came along and used link popularity (in part) to determine how sites appeared in their index. So webmasters went berzerk and linked up with anyone who would link back to them.. NOT the right way to do it. We are here to help educate users the proper way to do it so you dont have trouble with the SEs.

Both Yahoo! and Google state in their webmaster guidelines "have other relevant sites link to yours". We know from discussing with their engineers that they realize many sites won't link to a site without a link back, ie, reciprocal linking.

So when done correctly, it can be a fair way to create quality traffic completely aside from SE returns.

There is alot of misinformation on the web about reciprocal linking.. too many webmasters doing it for the sole purpose of trying to manipulate or affect their rankings. Which causes problems for SE engineers - and so the SEs take steps to try to devalue irrelevant links - not easy. When backlinks aren't counted, webmasters get paranoid and thus the retreat from linking.

Domain Driver's point is that if you will link for the end user and dispense with linking strategies that do not benefit the end user, reciprocal linking is a great way to obtain traffic as long as it's done correctly. Because those links are seen as relevant by the SEs and therefore, the relevant backlinks that were obtained with safe volume are still counted.

Reciprocal linking is alive and well when done correctly for the purpose of obtaining relevant traffic from like minded sites. It not only is a decent way to increase site traffic long term but yes, it will help your rankings long term when done correctly. That means keep linking slow and extremely relevant. Obtain deep links (not just links to your home page). Find informational sites that are relevant to your own and link to help your site's visitors maintain a "knowledge gateway" .. to help your end users continue to find relevant information related to your own site. When you do this with high relevancy and low volume, it works.

MartiniBuster, you are very right that alot of folks are here to learn about how linking affects SEO and thats a valid reason for discussion. I encourage it since that is something that must be considered when linking.

However, it's also important for webmasters to know that when two relevant sites link to each other, its not going to hurt their rankings as so many SEOs like to state unless it's being done in a manner that trips the search engines speed limits (dont ask me what the speed limits are, we dont know we just know they exist). Best way to avoid hitting the linking thresholds in place by Yahoo and Google is to avoid services that promise X number of links in a short period of time. Better to make each linking decision based on if the link benefits your end user and then keep the volume low (don't obtain or link out to more than about 50 new sites a month).

If you use software to manage your linking, use one that is EDITOR BASED and allows you to fully control who you will and will not link to. Use a software that allows your links to be hosted on your own server. Avoid services that promise guarantees.

[edited by: martinibuster at 4:48 pm (utc) on Aug. 29, 2006]
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