Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Thought 2: Everyday I get multiple email solicitations regarding swapping links. These are always form letters that basically say the exact same thing, with my domain inserted at appropriate points. If I'm getting them, so are hundreds or thousands of others, so that is not exactly "natural linking".
Thought 3: I doubt that hardly anyone actually adds our links to their sites without receiving something in return. I certainly don't do that for others and can't imagine why anyone would really do it for us. I mean, in the past month how many people here have just given free links to others for no reason?
So I'm coming to the conclusion that pursuing linkage as a technique to help with Google rankings is becoming increasingly difficult, to the point where the considerable effort may only provide marginal returns at best (and may even be counterproductive):
- Buying links will not help (and may hurt);
- Being included in sites with hundreds/thousands of other links will not help (and may hurt);
- Few people are giving free links (who can blame them?);
- Is DMOZ even alive anymore? (I didn't think so!).
Sure, like most webmasters we have a "Link Exchange" info page on our sites to try to encourage "natural linking", but it is rarely used by anyone other than people with a gazillion links already.
The truth is -- as far as I can see -- meaningful/helpful reciprocal linkage has in large part become an exercise in futility. If anyone is still finding ongoing success in their efforts, then my hat is off to you.
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I regretably did not see abhishekkaushik's excellent thread "Does Natural Linking Actually Take Place?" when I added this posting (it was pretty far down on my browser window). Having just read through the replies leaves me with the impression that everything depends on the kind of site you provide (commercial/information/entertainment, etc) and the length of time you've been on the web.
I'm also impressed with the number of people in that thread that do give outgoing links without any expectation of a return, though again I'd say that in large part depends on whether you are retail or not.
Anyway, sorry for not seeing that thread first, and thanks to everyone who responded to abhishekkaushik -- there are many useful insights to be mined from that ground...
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Thanks for the information about link strategies. What is Linking Conundrum all about?
In this case, the word "conundrum" meaning "puzzle" or "paradox". In other words, most of us have been working for many years under the assumption that most linking is helpful, but now it appears that under some circumstances, it could actually be harmful to your positioning in the SERPs. And even when it's not harmful, it takes a LOT of time (with often marginal returns) to establish relevant reciprocal linking relationships.
Having said all that, I learned a lot reading the thread began by abhishekkaushik in this forum titled "Does Natural Linking Actually Take Place?" -- recommended if you haven't seen it yet.
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