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all links are reciprocal links - does it hurt?

         

waiman39hk

4:27 am on Feb 24, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hi,

I'd like to ask if the majority of my backlinks are recipical links, will it be not good?

The links will be from topic related websites. I know natural links are always the best. But its always easier to do link exchange. If search engine sees my links are all recipical, does it hurt?

jdancing

4:44 am on Feb 24, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I like to keep my links 1/3 reciprical, 1/3 natural, and 1/3 paid to keep the SEs off balance.

CainIV

7:22 am on Feb 24, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



If the links are reciprocal and relevant to you it won't hurt, but the jury is out on how helpful it will be to ranking high.

I like that comment about 1/3, 1/3, 1/3, that makes alot of sense.

Mixing it up in moderation is the best policy for sure.

percentages

8:40 am on Feb 24, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



>If the links are reciprocal and relevant to you it won't hurt, but the jury is out on how helpful it will be to ranking high.

I'm seeing reciprocal links as worthless right now. All value is in one-way linkage.

This is very hard to measure. My results are from a brand new site than I engineered a very large number of one-way links to. No links back.

It out performs other sites I own that have been around for years with a mix of reciprocal links and one-way links organically produced over time.

It may be a short-term "fresh" experience, too early to say. Right now it is good......give me six months and I'll be able to tell you if it goes stale!

Jane_Doe

4:57 pm on Feb 24, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



If search engine sees my links are all recipical, does it hurt?

I think it is like poker. It just depends on what the competition has. Reciprocal links from link pages are like having an Ace high. You might rank for non competitive keywords if the other sites for your keywords don't have any better links, but for anything competitive you probably are going to need lots of one way links these days.

My sites that do the best in Google are the ones that have good content and just get lots of unsolicited, one way links.

Swebbie

7:49 am on Feb 27, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



My sites that do the best in Google are the ones that have good content and just get lots of unsolicited, one way links.

OK, chicken and the egg question here. How can you expect to get organic one-way links because of your great content if no one can find your site yet? Seems to me you need the traffic to get the 'honest' one-way links. What do you guys do to get one-ways other than buying them or submitting to tons of directories? Talking about new sites here, not ones already getting a steady flow of traffic.

martinibuster

8:12 am on Feb 27, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



How can you expect to get organic one-way links because of your great content if no one can find your site yet?

That's a great question.

It's like Matt always says, tell other webmasters about your site, let people know it's there.

Or to paraphrase the Matrix movie, "There is no chicken. There is no egg."

dreamache

4:04 pm on Feb 27, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member




That's a great question.

It's like Matt always says, tell other webmasters about your site, let people know it's there.

Or to paraphrase the Matrix movie, "There is no chicken. There is no egg."

that's complete BS. "tell other webmasters about your site". other webmasters are stingy about who they give links to, and most don't care enough to add your link to their site. (like 99%)

it's not going to get you 1-way links, lol. I think the only way you're going to get a lot of 1-way links for a NEW site, is by trying to crack deals with other webmasters to get them.

martinibuster

5:01 pm on Feb 27, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Not B.S. But your mileage will vary with the quality of your content, and of course your niche.

I rarely do reciprocals. I haven't done a reciprocal link in months. Virtually every link I attain is a quality one way.

And believe me, getting a professor to give a commercial page a link can be like pulling teeth, as they're loathe to throw a link to a commercial page- especially when AdSense is showing irrelevant ads for an ethnic dating service, lol.

When someone objects to the commercial content I always write back and ask them to please judge the page by the quality of the content, and that usually works.

That won't work if you have less than useful content, or if your niche is overly commercial.

Swebbie

8:06 pm on Feb 27, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I asked the question, but I do have an answer (sort of). The only way I've ever been able to get any kind of decent ROI of my time on one-way links is to offer other webmasters in my niche original content that has a link back to my site. But I gotta tell you, you have to have a thick skin. Some webmasters will post your content and not the link, or they'll post it as you expect and when you check back in a couple of months, they're using the content but the link isn't live. Argh! Anyway, that seems to work if you have time to invest (like with recip links). I guess the other downside is that they will most likely post your content with your link on a brand new page, which means you have to wait for the SEs to index that new page on their site and then for it to age for you to get any good link benefit (other than the traffic the link might generate directly). I can't think of any other way to get one-ways that are actually that helpful. Wish there were others.