Is Reciprocal Linking Dead?

Most webmasters understand, or soon learn, that having links to your site is essential to getting listed in the major search engines, and to getting traffic. In fact, it is said that several of the major search engines won't even spider a site until it has a minimum number of incoming links from other sites that are spidered by the search engines.

What many webmasters do *not* know, however, is that the specific method used to link to your site can have a major influence on how well you are ranked by the search engines. Perhaps this article will clear up some of that confusion.

Years ago, the only real emphasis was on getting links to a site. To that end, many webmasters sought links from any site they could find. To this day, I still get link requests from webmasters whose site has absolutely nothing to do with mine. Those same webmasters also often sought to get their site listed on as many "link farms" as they could. There is, however, a major problem with this outdated strategy.

As spidering techniques became more sophisticated, search engines tended to give less and less weight to these apparently random links to a site, and some people even believe that some engines actually penalize a site for having such incoming links. In recent years, the trend has been to evaluate not only the number of incoming links to a site (link popularity), but also whether those links are from sites whose theme is related to that of the recipient site (link reputation). In addition, analysis is even made of the text used in the incoming links.

Your site's "link reputation" is in part determined by who links to you. Just like in the real world, you're known by the company that you keep. If, like me, you maintain internet marketing websites, then you don't want a bunch of links from online casinos, porn sites, dating sites, or online pharmacies. You want links from other sites whose content is related to the concept of operating an online business.

The search engines evaluate not only where your links come from, and what that says about your site, but the actual text of the link itself, and how it describes your site. This is where the notion of link "reputation" comes in. It's because the search engines are now evaluating what is being said about you, and who is saying it, and using that information to determine the "theme" of your site, and how its pages should be ranked in the search engine results for various search terms.

Linking text technique is a somewhat esoteric issue, but here's the idea in a nutshell. The text of a link to your site tells the search engine something about the alleged theme of your site. To the extent that the linking text matches the theme that the search engine has assigned to a site based upon an analysis of the content of that site's pages, that link is considered "valid", for lack of a better term. But there's more. Your site may have a variety of related "sub themes", and your pages may be optimized for a variety of related key words and phrases. You need to have some incoming links whose text is relevant to those key words and phrases, too.

If all of your incoming links are identical in what they say about your site, it is patently obvious to the search engine that you, the site owner, were in some way responsible for those links. If, on the other hand, your site is linked to with a variety of text (all related to your site theme, of course), it appears that those links are more "genuine". By that I mean that they appear to have come, in some cases, by a related website *choosing* to link to you, and simply doing so because they liked your site. After all, the core concept of a link is that it is a form of "endorsement" of your site by the other webmaster.

Lately, a few savvy webmasters have begun to taking linking strategy a step further. The most favorable endorsement your site can get is a "one way link". The search engine sees only an incoming link to your site, and nothing going back from you to the other site. It appears that the other webmaster has endorsed you for "free", without being "repaid" with a reciprocal link. In fact, experts report that the search engines do, indeed, attach more weight to "one way" than to reciprocated links.

So how do you get these "one way" links? The way I do it is by taking advantage of the fact that I own several websites. When I get a link request from someone, I look to see which of my sites will be most benefitted by that link, and also which of mine can most benefit the other webmaster. I then "reciprocate" a link to one of my sites by linking back to the other website from a different one of my sites. We both get a "one way" link that way. So far, I have yet to have anyone turn me down for this type of link exchange, and in fact I'm starting to get a few emails from other webmasters requesting just such an exchange.

Another way to do this would be to do a "three way" exchange between yourself and two other websites. Site A links to Site B, which links to Site C, which in turn links back to Site A. It makes it a little more complicated to get the linking accomplished, but by doing a few of these, you get some very valuable "one way" links. It seems to me only a matter of time until someone comes up with a concept site that facilitates or "brokers" such links.

Just as the internet and internet marketing are constantly evolving, so is marketing technique. Using advanced linking strategies, such as the ones described above, is essential to remaining competitive in the marketplace. So is buying and using the appropriate software tools. Several fine link exchange software tools exist that can assist you in building a quality links directory. By paying attention also to the issue of link reputation, and of building up some one-way links, you can keep your link building strategy current, and maximize your chances of favorable search engine lisings.

As always, good luck in your endeavors!