Forum Moderators: martinibuster
The consensus in the past was to do it if it was topical; no more than 50 links a page, no names such as links.html.
I now have a couple sites that have directories, within these directories; they have relevant categories, +- 20 categories. These are all PR5+ with zero outbound links. As you can imagine, I am getting desperate calls from webmasters every day pleading to exchange links.
What should I do?
I now have a couple sites that have directories, within these directories; they have relevant categories, +- 20 categories. These are all PR5+ with zero outbound links. As you can imagine, I am getting desperate calls from webmasters every day pleading to exchange links.
Why do you have directories with zero outbound links? (I assume you are somehow cloaking the links)
Recips for SEO are probably a disappearing phenomenon, but commercializing ever link on the web may turn into the same.
I link to sites that are good resources for the visitor, and I ask for others to link to mine when they can be a good link for their visitors. I have not requested a recip in a long time, nor have I responded to recip requests.
That said, all but one of my outbound links is normal - no cloaking or hoarding PR.
These forums have really convinced me in the advantage of a "natural" looking site when it comes to SEO.
WBF
My impression is that outbound links to known "authority" sites related to that specific topic will provide an SEO benefit to your own site. (High quality sites normally link to other high quality sites, so this is an "indicator of quality" in GoogleJargon.)
I would suggest a combination of 1 or 2 outbound links to "authority" sites on each directory page, plus a modest number of outbound links to other good quality, relevant
websites who are begging for help. That helps them, and it helps you.
Why do you have directories with zero outbound links? (I assume you are somehow cloaking the links)
Not at all……
When I developed the site from ground up, the directory was part of the solution (reciprocal directory).
However, I never pursued getting reciprocal links; I went after 1 way links. The site does rank well and dominates yahoo/msn and almost there on G (pg 2) for extremely competitive keywords.
Also, these pages have no links back to the main site. They are links from the directory to sub-directory. I guess I could add some nice links back to homepage and channel some pr.
The reason I am tempted at embarking on this, is because the top 4 sites in Google have already contacted me for trades and they dominate G.
[edited by: jaffstar at 8:45 pm (utc) on Oct. 4, 2005]
The does rank well and dominates yahoo/msn and almost there on G (pg 2) for extremely competitive keywords.
I would be wary about embarking on a recip campaign if this is the case. Concentrate on content and one-ways if your site is already ranking well for competitive keywords. Adding recips at this point is dangerous. If it aint broke...
Adding recips at this point is dangerous. If it aint broke...
Thats my gut feeling as 100% of my back links are 1 way & I still have a few more tricks to increase the link count.
advantage of a "natural" looking site
I'd say that any "natural" looking site would have a few outbound links --including the occasional link that is reciprocated... FWIW, I like econman's suggestion!
I'd say that any "natural" looking site would have a few outbound links --including the occasional link that is reciprocated... FWIW, I like econman's suggestion!
I agree fully. What I meant was that I have not gone looking for recips for a long time. That is not to say that I don't have several (many?) inbounds that are from sites that I also link to.
It is natural for top sites in a particular niche to be interlinked. The links though are unlikely to be confined to links pages, directories, etc. If I am wrting something about fossil camel tracks in California's Death Valley it is a lot easier to link to a site with pictures and more information than it is to go there and take my own pictures.
On the other hand, someone with a site about prehistoric camel species will probably want to link to sites about their modern descendents.
That is natural in my mind.
WBF
Given their positions, they are probably considered "authority" sites, so linking to them might benefit you; if you are also getting a link back from them, that might also benefit you.
Check to see if any of these 4 sites link to one another; if so, it would seem "natural" for your site to also have some links to/from one or more sites in this elite group.
I would suggest a combination of 1 or 2 outbound links to "authority" sites on each directory page, plus a modest number of outbound links to other good quality, relevant
So, offer some trades to authority sites on related topics? directory/green-widgets/ with green widget sites.
It's also getting harder and harder to find link pages that are passing PR-even well established sites-and this is usually because of technical problems preventing PR.
So I would say link trading is just about extinct except for those that don't know any better.
must be missing something. If this is a reciprocal directory than how are there no outbound links?
The site was built ground up, and we created a recip directory. We never embarked on any campaigns, rather we went for 1 way links, the site ranks very well, but now we have 20 topical directory names with high pr and dozens of requests a day.
