New to Links and confused.

One way or reciprocal links - and are how to avoid ban for spam

[Haveonelikethis]

Hi everyone.
I am new to WebmasterWorld.com so please forgive me if I have posted something that has been seen before and done to death.

I am new to link building and after having been burned by adwords am trying to improve my sites page rank and traffic by other methods.

I have read everywhere from every type of "Guru" that links are what you want - yet other people say that multi links can be spam and get you banned.

So I have many confused questions:
1. will a one way link (me to somewhere else) affect the ranking?
2. will a one way link (someone to me - why would they do that if q1 is not good?)affect the ranking
3. how do you generate loads of two way links without geting accused of link farming?

Any advice, answers, pointers and general info appreciated.

regards to all
Colin

[wheel]

Experts more knowledgeable than me will have more to say I'm sure, but briefly:
1)Yes. Surprisingly it can help you. Make the external link to an authority site on whatever the page is about. The SE's know what the authority site is about, by linking a page to the authority you help the SE's figure out what your page is about.
2)Yes, one way inbounds are fabulous, however there are all sorts of variations on this theme. Ideally, you want one way inbounds from sites that are on topic. How to get them? You'll have to do a lot of reading. It's not easy.
3) Veery carefully. Though generally what you're doing is looking for sites that are already offering to swap links. You should put a page on your site that offers to swap links as well, so that others can find you. By way of example, do a google search on 'submit url' + "your industry'. That'll show you pages that are offering to swap links in your industry.

[Haveonelikethis]

Hi Wheel
Thanks for what you say - its very informative and helps to settle my thinking.

Careful question this - Does anyone have any views, comments about the software you can buy that sends out loads of link requests and says it handles it for you? Will this open a whole new nest of worms?

regards
Colin

[wheel]

If you're doing reciprocals (I don't, but many do) then probably some software that automates the link exchanges is a good idea.

If you're looking at an email system that just email blasts people, well, then you're spamming and likely to get what's coming to you. Even folks that are carefully hand reviewing individual sites for link requests are getting spam complaints these days.

You can go the hard one up way and develop links through directories and by contacting individually related sites. Or you can automate it and ride the edge a bit harder. As far as I know, both work. HOWEVER, if you're going to ride the edge -as you're suggesting - I think you're going to need to use software that's a bit smarter than that. If it was easy as buying a package for $69 and sending out a million emails, wouldn't everyone be doing it? Well, sure enough, everyone already has - so now you'll see limited to negetive results with a simple off the shelf package IMO.

Your first bet is to read in the link forum here, going back 6 months to a year. Read everything. That'll get you started, and is certainly what I always do when approaching something new like this.

[jaffstar]

If you're doing reciprocals (I don't, but many do)

I don't believe in these at all. However, new sites are in a catch 22 situation and need to do it.

There are other ways, use a press release, that can eventually give you a PR boost. Or directories.

[Precious pearls]

Hello friend,

Definitely one way link affects the PR of your website. It improves the Pr of your website. Reciprocal links can be get easily if you are excahanging with the sites that are having the same theme as you.

Cheers
P_P