What Reciprocal Links Are Really For

A simple explanation about reciprocal linking

[Jimmack]

It seems no matter how much it is talked about most in the internet world still view reciprocal links as the main method of getting high page rank?

The truth is the main function of reciprocal links is to drive traffic to your website pure and simple!

Sure reciprocal links do play a SMALL factor on your page rank but noting near to the extent that a lot of people are lead to believe.

And speaking of pagerank anyone who says they will not reciprocate a link with a site that dont have at least a page rank of 4 is a fool.

THOSE DAYS ARE OVER FOLKS forget about page rank the truth is it is all but dead anyway.

I have many sites in the top 10 positions of Google with a page rank of ZERO and some of the search terms used for these sites are pretty good to.

Search engines account for just a small amount of my website traffic. Viral marketing email advertising and of course reciprocal linking is where over 80% of my traffic comes from.

When it comes to the top search engines all they really care about is selling ad space and rightfully so or they would be out of business.

If your going to run a link exchange system on your website dont make the number 1 mistake that almost everyone does is to have to many categorys.

You just need 10 to 15 categorys max this will let the search engines be able to focus better on what your site is all about.

But if your running a directory well then of course the sky is the limit. In closing all I want to say is reciprocal links are for driving traffic to your website only and dont get hung up on the page rank crap.

James Mackinlay

[Wizard]

I have many sites in the top 10 positions of Google with a page rank of ZERO

You say they show PR0 in the toolbar? How old are they? If they have less than four months, you can't tell anything about their real PageRank until next toolbar update, which is likely to take place this month.

I agree reciprocal links are more for traffic than for PageRank, but still, PageRank gives some information about page - pages with high PR are spidered more frequently and get more score for anchor text just because more pages link to them with this anchor text. So they usually rank better and have higher traffic what makes links from them more valuable.

And there are benefits from quality outbound links, so it's better to link out to high ranked pages than to low ranked ones.

[proboscis]

"THOSE DAYS ARE OVER FOLKS forget about page rank the truth is it is all but dead anyway."

Is that true?

If it is why is Google so concerned about "leaking link juice"? Why are they (and by they I mean Matt) harping so much about selling links and the rel nofollow tag?

[Pico_Train]

yes true, it is still important but not as much as it used to be.

[Pico_Train]

Oh, and reciprocal links, when done well, researched well and obtained are indeed a great traffic generator.

[Wizard]

Links give you more than PR. They give TrustRank, theming and anchor text. PR still has some weight in the algo, but perhaps smaller than it the first days of Google, the other have strong weights.

[Phil_Payne]

Do a Google search (I use Bigdaddy) on "<snip>"

#1 hit is mine - PageRank 0.

I don't know what part PageRank plays in the great scheme of things, but Google people have been gently hinting for a while that you shouldn't get carried away by it.

That page, BTW, is a public service offering on my part. There are NO links whatsoever from it to any other site, nor do I know of any links to it from any other site. It's intended quite simply to provide information to people who need it - nothing else. Google seems to be detecting this sort of page - I have several and they all do just as well.

There are obvious consequences for current practice, but I leave the reader to realise those for his/herself.

[edited by: engine at 5:14 pm (utc) on Jan. 8, 2006]
[edit reason] TOS [/edit]

[mrprotein]

Do a Google search (I use Bigdaddy) on "<snip>"

#1 hit is mine - PageRank 0.

Oops.. your index page is a PR4 which means although new the page you're referring to has PR of something even though the little green bar says 0

[edited by: engine at 5:15 pm (utc) on Jan. 8, 2006]
[edit reason] TOS [/edit]

[Phil_Payne]

This is something that's interested me lately.

I have PR4 at the very top. It's enough. When all this started (when I first installed the Google SpyBar) you lost PR1 for each level. Now - I'm four levels down at some points, so shouldn't these pages have PR0?

It doesn't really matter to me - people who want them badly enough still seem to find them.

[mrprotein]

This is something that's interested me lately.

I have PR4 at the very top. It's enough. When all this started (when I first installed the Google SpyBar) you lost PR1 for each level. Now - I'm four levels down at some points, so shouldn't these pages have PR0?

Everything you need to know you will learn from reading the posts on this site. The PR bar is updated on a weekly-biweekly basis on an invisible level. Updated so you can see what is what... not as often as it used to.

[colin_h]

As with most things online, it's quality and not quantity that matters when collecting incoming links. The recent months have seen a real assault on link farms and their powers over PR, resulting in some drastic fluctuation in site competitiveness.

IMO links from sites with high PR will always be great marketing for a website, but cross-linking from low PR sites will be gradually phased out in the calculation of PR.

A recent example of mine is a link from a network TV channel that I arranged (Reciprical). They checked to make sure that I wasn't selling any third party goods on my site and were only too pleased to help out. Within 3 months my site was being crawled regularly again and my Index page PR has increased from PR4 to PR5. The site is only 6 months old and I don't think that it would be considered a PR5 for many months if left to its own merits. Hits increased by 25% after this and have stayed stable ever since.