What are Reciprocal Links?
They say that links aren’t everything in the SEO game. But if you’re going to look at it, search professionals strongly believe that it can contribute to rankings. Although search engines have been actively toggling their algorithms these past couple of years, links still play an important role in determining the relevant and popular pages depending on the keywords given. Links are also used to measure metrics such as authority and trust. Want to know how links, particularly reciprocal links, can be used to your website’s advantage? Then here’s a short guide to help you get started.
But first, what exactly is a reciprocal link? A reciprocal link, as its name suggests, is a link to your site in exchange for a link back. Think of it as an agreement between 2 websites. This is often done among webmasters from the same niche. Not only does this increase the number of incoming links, but it’s also a sure fire way to get more traffic.
Search engines like Google and Bing look at the quality of links you’re getting in order to figure you out. Back when SEO was fairly new, it was a numbers game. It used to be, the more links pointing to your site, the better. But that only resulted to spammy activity. These days, it’s become a quality game, where domain authority and page rank determines whether a link is viable or not. So if you’re thinking of getting reciprocal links, make sure to choose your partner sites carefully.
Search engines have definitely become a lot smarter ever since SEO experts decided to make a living out of spamming. Linking schemes that worked in the past just aren’t as effective anymore. If you think that you can still get away with paid links and unnatural linkbuilding techniques, you have another thing coming. Expect your website to be penalized or worst, be put in Google’s sandbox and disappear from search engine results forever. This is why it’s important that you aim for quality links. Here are a few linking techniques that you can do for your website.
Tip#1 Set Up quality reciprocal Linking with websites you already have a relationship with
This includes suppliers, business partners, followers, and influencers that are connected to your niche. Don’t just link with any website. Make sure that it is somehow connected to your niche so that Google doesn’t see this unnatural link building.
Tip#2 Have feasible link agreements
Make sure that you have an agreement with your reciprocal site on the kind of links that you’ll build. Often, you’ll find these links under the “Resource”, “Links” or “Partner” pages. It’s important that the links come off as natural. Never force the links on pages that are totally unrelated. Having 2 links on a site will suffice. Going over that is only going to alert Google and get you in trouble.
Tip#3 It’s OK to have ‘one way’ links
As long as the links are legitimate and relevant to your niche, you’ll be fine. Allow other sites to link to you, especially if they want to link to information on your site. This tells Google that you’re an authority site and may reward you with better ranking power. You can also gain one way links by contributing information to other websites. Whether it’s through a guest post, or a blog comment, as long as you’re contributing something helpful to the other site, they’ll probably oblige.
Reciprocal links, when gained properly, can benefit your website and your partner website equally. As long as both sites belong to the same niche and they are on the same level plane in terms of domain authority and page rank. If one site ranks higher than the other, only the lower one will reap the benefits. Search engines are more concerned about the quality of the websites and not just the number of link outs. It’s getting trickier and trickier but if you follow the rules to the last dot, you’re website will survive. Here are the things you need to avoid doing if you don’t want to get penalized.
Tip#1 Avoid link farms like the plague
First, avoid link farms like the plague. What are link farms? These are automated services that build thousands of links for you without you even moving a finger. This is probably the fastest way to alert Google of your unnatural link building activities. Once they get a sense of what you’re doing, you’ll just find your website banned from all major search engines. Recovering from that is not only costly, but it will require more effort.
Tip#2 Learn to Say No
You should also learn to say No when people approach you for links. If you have a good ranking site, with respectable authority and trust, expect the offers to come streaming in. There will be webmasters from all over who will befriend you for a couple of links. Look at these unsolicited emails carefully and study their sites. If they don’t pass your standards, just say no. It’s easy to get caught up as the popular kid on the block, but if it will only lead to your downfall, better to stay away.
Tip#3 Steer clear of paid links
Whatever you do, make sure that you steer clear of websites offering paid links. Why? Because once Google decides to shut them down, you’re probably going down with them. It’s clearly stated in Google’s policy that link buying is not to be tolerated. This is one of the easiest ways to get on Google’s bad side so don’t even think of risking it. Always remember, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
So if reciprocal linking for you? Only you can answer that. Reciprocal links can help you build authority and trust for your site, but if it’s only going to come from a low quality site, it would be best to leave it out of your marketing efforts completely. Don’t ever take a shortcut thinking you’ll never get caught. Because even if Google doesn’t hit you with a penalty now, it will eventually catch up on you once the next algorithm change rolls out.