Are Reciprocal links Good or Bad?

If you have looked into search engine optimisation at all you will have seen a lot of information about reciprocal links. All search engine marketers have different views and they can be quite strong about their views. This article will look at the main areas of through and whether they are true or not.

Reciprocal Links Opinions

The opinions about reciprocal links tend to fall into 3 very distinct camps and these are:

1. That reciprocal links have no value at all and will just be discounted by the search engines so they are completely pointless.

2. That reciprocal links are exactly the same as one way links and will have the same affect.

3. That a site can have reciprocal links but they should only be a percentage of your links, say 30%.

So which one of these, if any, is the truth? Knowing this can help you to determine what strategy you want to adopt for your website.

The Reality of reciprocal links

The truth is that there is not a one size fits all with reciprocal links. How many you have and how they are counted will depend on the content of your site and the quality of the links. Many people will claim that if all of your links are reciprocal then the search engines will automatically raise a red flag and get you a ban for spam. However this is not necessarily the case as it depends what your site is about. For example imagine that your website is about cat protection, there is a good chance that all of your links will be from sites about cats and there is a good chance you will link back. If your site is more commercial this is not necessarily the case and less reciprocal links would be expected.

If you are considering reciprocal links then there are a few things you need to consider:

1. Is the site that is linking to you high quality and not just giving links to anybody else that asks? If this is the case then it could look like a spam site and you might not want to link to them.

2. Is the content of the site that is linking to you relevant to your site?

3. Does it make sense for you to link to this site? The best way to think about this is in terms of your visitors. Will in increase their experience and be of benefit to them if you link to the relevant site?

4. Where will the link to you be placed? This is important to determine whether you should like to the site. If they have a page where they just put a large number of links in a list then the benefit to your site will be minimal and it might not be worth linking to them.

5. Where will you be putting your links? Again this is important as you do not want to just have a Links page. The best way to do this to make yourself look reputable is to place the links within the content of your site.

6. What anchor text will both of you be using? If you can make sure you get your keywords in the anchor text of the link to your website then this will have extra benefits for you. If it is just a simple link with no decent anchor text then the value for you might not be worth it.

Conclusion

As you can see the process of gaining reciprocal links and its benefits is not as straight forward as you might think. As long as you think about the above before you go for it then you should get significant benefits from your reciprocal links.