March 17, 2007 12:47
Category: Link Making
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First, let's face the fact. Reciprocal linking no longer ranks high on must-do list for most search specialists. The reasons are manifold. Chief among them are as under:
1
Search engines are known to dislike plain reciprocal linking between sites because they do not enhance the value of the links in their eyes. Does this mean SEs penalize sites that resort to directory-style reciprocal linking? May be not, but there is no value addition either.
2
There has been too much abuse of the concept of reciprocal linking, and it is still not uncommon to find reciprocal links among completely disparate sites. Clearly, it is like waving red flags to search engines.
3
As a result of (1) and (2), most webmasters nowadays do not agree for plain reciprocal linking any longer.
However, there have been instances where website owners having recourse to several sites which they control, resort to 'turnkey' reciprocal linking. What happens is that site A links to B, B to C, C to D, and lastly D to A. Since no 2 sites link directly with each other, there's a belief that this works.
Nothing can be farther from truth. The fact is search engines can easily ferret out such covert understandings, and in fact strongly disfavors such techniques.
With that as backdrop, let us understand how reciprocal linking can still be made to work in your favor. The trick is rather simple, but to make it work needs some planning and hard work. Let's look at the following example. Say it's an article about content writing, and the paragraph below is a part of that.
Fact is, if you need to offer a product or service, you have to write a powerful ad that can convince your customers. Writing an effective sales copy is not anyone's cup of tea. Which means unless you hire an expert who has experience in relevant [link starts]content writing[link ends], you stand less and less chance to succeed in your objective.
Look how the phrase 'content writing' is used as an anchor text to provide a link to 'somesite.com'. Now if 'somesite.com' too links back to your site through an anchor text of your choice in an article like above, it will be a classic case of reciprocal linking without rubbing SEs the wrong way. Since there is some amount of value addition at either end, the SEs are not likely to object.
But, as I've said above, though the trick appears simple enough, it is equally, if not more, hard to put it in practice. After all, how many reciprocal links can you generate this way? It's not only that you need to write contents relevant to your site that can refer to your potential link-partners' sites, they also need to do same. Not many would care for that trouble.
But, are not there exceptions? Yes, John Chow for one. John Chow dot Com is a blog that helps you make money online. He offers to link to your blog if you review his blog. Yet, all said and done, anchor-text reciprocal linking is a tough call indeed.
Okay, so we know why reciprocal linking is usually considered as passe. If you're still with me, let's venture into how you can find your potential link partners. Here are some tools and options:
Link Exchange Tools
Several link making software are available that has to be downloaded for use. Some common features include creation of link directory, sending emails to potential link partners, checking if reciprocal links are active or not, processing link requests submitted through built-in forms, and so on.
Some like Arelis and Zeus also scout the Internet to find websites similar to yours that are willing to trade links. And LinkExplore maintains category-wise high-to-low PR websites that wish to exchange links.
Here are your probable choices for reciprocal linking software:
- 1 Sponsored Links Pro v2.0
- ALink Reciprocal Link Manager
- Arelis
- Gossamer Links v2.0
- LinkExplore
- Zeus 1000
Link Exchange Service
There is a wide variety of link exchange service that dot the Internet. Watching them, what comes to mind is that nearly all of them are aware of the pitfalls of plain vanilla reciprocal linking.
Which is why experts like Eric Ward, Andy Hagans and others offer services that are distinctly different from earlier concept of reciprocity for link generation. The main downside of their service is that they're way too costly, and beyond average website owners.
Be that as it may, here are some other link building services that can be considered:
- Alliance Link
- LinkAdage Link Exchange
- LinkPartners
- Links4Trade
- LinksManager
- SiteSell Value Exchange
Other Options
Among other options that I find great to use for locating potential reciprocal linking partners are based on typical queries in search engines. Here are 2 examples:
1
Search for the string "Suggest link" +"keyword" in say Google. In place of "keyword", mention the actual keyword for which you're looking for a link partner. The search results will provide you with all those pages that specifically have all the words. They may as well turn out interested in link swapping, or may be they're directories where you can submit your link request.
Bill Hartzer's article here provides a list of other possible search strings for the same purpose.
2
If MSN's Live Search or Yahoo! are your favorite search engines, then consider SEOmoz's suggestion of using typical search strings to find out who links to your competition. You may say if they link to them, why not me! The search string can be as under (use it as it is, including the parentheses):
(linkdomain:domain1.com linkdomain:domain2.com) (-linkdomain:yoursite.com)
This query will yank out all those links that connect to 'domain1' and 'domain2', but not to 'yoursite'. A good help indeed for your reciprocal linking effort, don't you think!
