Link Strategies – To Build Presence and Gain Exposure (continued)

Reciprocal Linking Discussion started by paynt (2000)

[drcrespy]

The original discussion board (now closed) had a very interesting discussion of reciprocal linking. I have begun a reciprocal linking campaign of the "old-fashioned" high ethical caliber type, sort of a throw-back to the early days of linking. I carefully view every site before-hand to determine, as best as I can, that the site is authentic, professional, and has a linking page (this is important and necessary as our site describes medical information and services). I have between 20-25 sites currently linking to us (it took 6-months!) and I am running out of ideas of highly related sites to consider!

Any suggestions? Thanks.

[rogerd]

While there may be only a few dozen sites in your exact niche, drcrespy, there are no doubt many thousands of sites in the medical/health information field. I'd recommend casting a wider net while maintaining your quality standards. You should be able to get relevant, quality links while expanding your universe of potential linkers.

[Mohamed_E]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, drcrespy!

In addition to rogerd's suggestion, let me ask: Do you really need more links? My site has about 40 good external links, which (in my particular field) is enough for most pages to rank very well. This allows me to concentrate on adding content, rather than on searching for links.

[sem4u]

If you create new content which interests people, you should find that some site owners will link to you because they like your site.

[drcrespy]

Thanks rogerd, Mohamed_E, and Sem4u. I like the idea of expanding to a larger medical community, that provides more options. Developing content is a really nice idea also, I think that should be one of our next steps too.

While 20-25 links may not be bad in most circumstances, it has only gotten us up to a Google ranking of 81 and Yahoo of 69. A major issue is that while we are a niche business, the consumer generally uses a broad medical term (e.g., "infertility"), which has us competing with much larger institutions and organizations (e.g., hospitals, universities, government agencies). In other words, we are stuck trying to find a way to survive against the "big-boys."

I really appreciate your suggestions.