reciprocal linking

[seo5]

hi..
in case of reciprocal linking if there is a site having no pr but has excellent content and is absolutely complementing my site then is it good and advisable to link back to such a site.. and the pr of my site being much better....

thanks.!

[ridgway]

will your users find the content useful, and more selfishly, benefit your goal as a provider of / authority / linker to the information?

if yes, i'd be inclined to link to them. if not, a link from them probably should not persuade you to link to them. pr be damned.

just mis dos centavos.

[martinibuster]

First take a few snippets of the content and run it in Yahoo using quotation marks. If it appears to have been sourced from an article directory, it's not good content.

But originality and usefulness of the content is not sufficient reason to link to it. You should also do other checks regarding it's backlinks etc. to see if it's in good neighborhoods and not participating in anything shady.

[jchampliaud]

In my opinion PR is meaningless. If you feel the site will be useful to your users then exchange links.

[adamovic]

You should also do other checks regarding it's backlinks etc. to see if it's in good neighborhoods and not participating in anything shady.

BadRank propagate if you are linking to Bad sites, not if bad sites are linking so you.

If the site has good and unique content and don't link to bad sites I would do link exchange for sure.

[seo5]

thanks for the replies..

ya agreed that good content will be useful to the users but then as the site doesnt have a pr then the back link would hardly be helpful in moving up in the serps...

[cnvi]

Make linking decisions for the end user, not for PR or search engines.

If someone asks you for a reciprocal link, ask yourself, "Does this link I am about to publish on my website benefit my end user's experience? Does it provide another knowledge gateway to relevant information related to my own site?" If you aren't sure of if the answer is no, best to not link to that site. If the answer is an obvious yes, then link to the site with complete disregard for the other site's PR or other rank data.

I say complete disregard for page rank or other rank data because all websites start with low PR or rank score or whatever you want to call it.. there are plenty of useful sites on the web with relevant content that have low pr.. many new sites start out that way. To not link strictly because of low or no PR makes is short sighted in my humble opinion.

For example.. we run an informational aviation site that educates and englightens joe public about air traffic control. From our site, we link to other aviation related websites such as government/authority sites, sites that contain information for pilots, sites that contain information for general aviation travelers, sites that offer air traffic control related games and entertainment, and other similar resources related to air traffic control. We only link to the high quality air traffic control related resources we feel benefit our end users.

Many of the sites we link to have no PR but that has never affected our rankings. The traffic we receive from those links become regular users of our site according to our log reports.

Our aviation site does not link to sites irrelevant to our aviation / air traffic control site. So for example, we would not link this site to home improvement sites, real estate sites, gambling sites, adult entertainment, fishing lures, basket weaving, etc.

Reciprocal linking is a great way to provide new knowledge gateways to your end users that they might not have thought of. The return traffic will produce qualified traffic more interested in your product or service. But you must keep it relevant and useful for the end user.