Do Reciprocal Links Still Work

[northweb]

Hi, will be contacting some sites by phone that have a high page rank of 3 - 5 for link swapping. A couple of questions that you guys may be able to help with.

1) Do recipocal links still work with google for helping increase your organic ranking?

2) should links all go to homepage or is best have the point to internal pages.

thanks in advance.
northweb.

[cnvi]

Please first define "still work" ..

-- For traffic building purposes?

-- Branding a new website among others in the same realm of interest?

-- Primarily for SEO benefits?

Are you only concerned with increasing rankings in Google or do you have other goals ?

[northweb]

Well the main idea is to improve ranking in google as the website is new. Over the years with other sites I have recieved some direct traffic from link partners. However, majority of the traffic is from google organic results.

I have read articles that say recipical links are a waste of time for improving search engine position. I find it hard to believe that there would not be some improvement in your google position using good quality link swaps.

any suggestions or ideas.

thanks
northweb.

[piatkow]

I created a directory of local groups for an arts organisation that I was building a site for. I solicited return links to the directory and it died in Google. I rebuilt, dividing the directory over 3 topic related pages and replacing the original directory with a summary page. Now number one on key searches and plenty of traffic from the links.

There is no way to quantify the relative value of reciprocal and one-way links but my gut feel is that reciprocals benefit as long as your outbound links are not on the page getting all the inbounds.

[cnvi]

You will read alot of articles on the web regarding link exchange that contradict each other. This is because it all depends on how you go about conducting a link exchange campaign.

If you link to junk sites irrelevant to your own in high volume (more than 20 a day), it will not improve your rank in search engines. Some say it will hurt your rankings but I see no evidence of this. Irrelevant linking simply won't help.

If you choose link partners carefully and only link to quality sites related to your own site in natural volume (1 today, none for a week, 3 the next day, 1 the next day, none for the next few days, and so on), yes it works IF your site also publishes unique original content.

I've seen sites that link exchange in all the right ways (abiding by the rules and guidelines I explained above) but if they have no unique content, most search engines will see through this and the site won't rank well. Content is king.

Obtaining links is only part of the equation. Google and Yahoo! have stated this in their public comments. It's not all about linking.

If your site is unique and benefits the web, if it publishes unique and original content, and if you obtain relevant links through relevant link exchange, yes it works.

Example: We have a client who sells a stop smoking product. She has promoted her site exclusively through link exchange. She doesnt buy links (she can't afford it). Shes got a very tight marketing budget. We encouraged her to spend the little money she does have on unique content in the form of original articles and original blogs that discuss her product but don't give away the product. She's linked to self help related sites, and sites that discuss stopping smoking but don't directly compete with her unique product. Her domain name and website are only eight months old but in just five months time she was and still is ranking #4 for highly competitive keywords in all of the search engines. Total # of links obtained in those eight months? 49. That's less than one link a week.

If you link exchange with highly relevant websites in slow/natural volume, it not only works but it's one of the most cost effective methods for obtaining links. Sure it takes time to find relevant link partners which is why some bigshot seo's don't like it. But those who put the time and effort into it are those who are ranking well and not having to spend big money on buying links or other high priced "guaranteed results!" products.

[rise2it]

piatkow, I think you really hit on something important in your post. ;-)

[northweb]

cnvi, Irrelevant linking simply won't help.

I agree on the importance of relevant linking but not to sure on the speed of which you build your links. I think if you were to acquire hundreds of links per week it could be an issue. But building steadily over the months with a few quality links added daily is fine. The key being quality!

[cnvi]

cnvi, Irrelevant linking simply won't help.

did I say this? I dont see where I endorsed irrelevant linking. agreed it never helps.