Fixing the Reciprocal link penalty?

[alphacooler]

I know that some have a theory that google either penalizes or discounts reciprocal links, so would it be possible to not let google crawl your "links" page? The sites I link to would still get the same traffic from my site, except google wouldn't penalize me. I am sure this is a pipe dream and google has something to combat this, but I was just curious.

k

[justdave]

If you are trading with relevant sites, you don't have anything to worry about. If you are trading links with all sites, build a directory with your links categorized. Don't create a link farm and you won't have a problem.

[The Contractor]

If you are trading links with all sites, build a directory with your links categorized. Don't create a link farm and you won't have a problem.

Uhmm...what else would it be considered if it's full of recip. links?

[martinibuster]

>>>build a directory with your links categorized.

Anybody else have thoughts on that?...

[bhartzer]

so would it be possible to not let google crawl your "links" page?

Why not add the rel=nofollow attribute to most (or all) of the links on that page?

[The Contractor]

well my thoughts are if every one of your links are recips - it's going to look like what it is. I don't think it matters much how you categorize them. That's why I don't do recips (back/forth).

On the other hand if you use anything to keep them from being crawled you are cheating your link patners.

[defanjos]

What about if your directory has many non-reciprocal links to authority sites, and within those, then you place your reciprocals?

[The Contractor]

What about if your directory has many non-reciprocal links to authority sites, and within those, then you place your reciprocals?

I would say that would be the way to go for the long run/future. Lets face it as long as Google or any other SE uses links/backlinks as a part of their algo they are going to have to watch out for those that abuse and/or take advantage of that. May not matter as much now as I think it will in the future.

[alphacooler]

i think ill try the rel=nofollow . Thanks for the help!

[graywolf]

I see some slightly competitive areas where top ranking sites have categorized directories. I see other spots where they don't. So I would look at who's ranking now and use that as guage.