Having a directory and reviewing the number of sites that I do give’s a whole different perspective on websites and quality. One of the trends I notice is that there are certain niches of sites where reciprocal linking is fairly common place.
But just how does Google feel about that reciprocal link love?Â
One of those niches you see an abundance of link exchange practices going on is real estate.  Something that you should be aware of is those links that get exchanged in real estate blogrolls and sites just may draw penalties from Mama G. I found a Rand Fishkin Article over at SEOmoz while I was further researching this topic. It was about a Realtors site that got under Google’s bumper and was mowed down in a reciprocal linking penalty.
I can’t help but feel bad for these site owners. Most of them are small businesses trying to survive. They realize that the traffic search engines bring can make their business but don’t understand that reciprocal linking can get sites penalized.
Just in case you don’t know what a reciprocal link is, it is a mutual link between two objects, in this case two websites for mutual traffic benefits.
To take just a step back, I don’t think that all reciprocal linking is bad. It seems from the research I have done that there are thresholds of risk. Of course the safest bet is to just not engage in reciprocal linking. If the reciprocal linking is twenty or less associates you know in the industry it might still be safe. However if the numbers are higher you may start to draw the attention of search engines. Especially if the content on any of those linking sites is not relevant to the content of yours.Â
So the safest bet is to avoid reciprocal linking, but at least keep it under 20 to relevant sites.
When it comes to blogrolls that link out to other sites you are better off without them especially if they are used reciprocally. I use a blogroll on this blog to list and link to a few of my own internal blog posts that I want to emphasize to my readers.
If you insist on using a blogroll to link out with associates around the country you should keep it small. Don’t let it balloon into numbers that will get your site in trouble. Better yet would be to just make a separate page with your blogroll so it is not sitewide.
If you do end up in trouble due to reciprocal linking, this article how to handle a google penalty and an example from the field of real estate may help you out.
One last note. Though I used the real estate niche as an example here remember that there are also numerous high quality Realtor sites on the internet. Many of them in fact are exceptionally well done with relevant information and tools for visitors to use which do not engage in the reciprocal linking game.
August 8th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
” Of course the safest bet is to just not engage in reciprocal linking. If the reciprocal linking is twenty or less associates you know in the industry it might still be safe.”
do you mean forever, or once a day? its not about the total, it’s about the RATE at which you obtain recpirocal links. You can have thousands of recips if they are obtained ethically, relevantly, and in natural volume over a normal period of time.
August 8th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Thank you Carol - I was speaking in terms of a total number of reciprocal links.
August 8th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
you might consider doing more research! its completely normal for a site that is 10 years old to have 1000 legitimate relegant reciprocal links and rank #1 for its primary keywords.
August 8th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Carol I linked directly to some of the research in the article itself. Rand Fishkin is pretty knowledgeable when it comes to SEO topics. Oh and here is yet one more from an interview with Matt Cutts. Do you know of a better source that could contradict?
August 8th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
It is pretty well known that reciprocal links don’t do much good, unless it is between two high traffic sites. If you have 100 reciprocal links with low-level sites, you are better off just dumping them.
Besides, one-way links have been the way to go SEO-wise for a couple years now.
August 9th, 2008 at 7:44 am
you all have been reading too much misinformation. link exchange is alive and well especially among niche and hobby sites. its all about the rate at which you obtain them, and their relevancy to your site.
August 9th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Rather than dumping recipro links, couldn’t you just make them “no follow”?
August 9th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Mrs. Mecomber that could be a viable option for those looking purely for the traffic from the reciprocal link.
August 10th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Perhaps it’s more a matter of the number/ratio of sitewide(blog) reciprocal links. If you operate an old site, not blog, with a high number of reciprocal links, you’ll probably never have a problem since more likely than not, you have the ‘age factor’ in your favor. Further, whether it’s one-way sitewide or sitewide reciprocal links, a high ratio of anything is a red flag.
August 11th, 2008 at 12:26 am
I used to run a directory and after a while turned off reciprocal links. It soon became apparent that none of those links would give me any real benefit or improve my websites positioning at all.
Sometimes my link would appear in amongst 300 links, hardly any use! I can understand Google wanting to cut this down, and perhaps webmasters need to become more clever in the way we portray links. Instead of creating a list of “links” why not blog about those links, add the links in a fashion which will engage the audience better, and of course, ensure your reciprocals do the same!
I think better quality linking which will actually engage the user will help improve your sites positioning, not creating a links page which will only be read by the search engines.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:02 am
[...] Well Google doesn’t really hates, in fact it eats them for breakfast, most in the search engine optimisation society know that. However, recently there have been murmurings of websites tanking since Google updated its algorithm regarding reciprocal and paid links. One such post which got my attention can be found here: Authority Directory. [...]
August 13th, 2008 at 4:26 am
I run a couple of ecommerce sites and we get a lot of links through reciprocal linking. It was not really my choice, but I tried it. I think most of our links are reciprocal, but they are very much in our niche to the point they would be competitors if they sold retail. And I would say we are one of the top two or three online companies in our niche. It works for us, but, of course, I’m not resting. Always finding more ways to get links.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:15 am
Great article and very informative …keep it up, surely I’ll come back for more
August 15th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
I used to do reciprocal linking for traffic purposes (not so much to improve backlinks) and most of them were worthless anyway because I ended up sending people all the traffic and getting none in return. I don’t really bother with exchanges much anymore. If I see a good, relevant site I want to recommend to my visitors, I just provide a link and hope others do the same for me.