Are reciprocal web links worth the hassle?

Are reciprocal web links worth the hassle?

March 9th, 2011 | Filed under Blog,Marketing,Web Design

As part of your SEO process you’re no doubt already clued up with the two most important areas: Keywords and Link building.

The most difficult of these two tasks is link building, and its quite likely that you’ve delved into, or thought about reciprocal links? But are they worth the hassle?

Reciprocal Links

A reciprocal link is another name for a link swap. In other words you add a link on your website that directs to mine, and I’ll add a link on my site that directs to your site.

Many sites insist that you add their link on your website first, with an automated confirmation that the link exists and the author will confirm your link on their site within 24 hours or so.

But as easy as this sounds, unfortunately there are more disadvantages than advantages to reciprocal linking.

Advantages of reciprocal links

  1. Reciprocal links are a quick way of getting some easy links to your website.
  2. Sometimes the link may become a ‘relevant’ link, especially with those sites that are very selective with who they reciprocate with and that offer similar services or products.
  3. There is a better chance of being linked from a high PageRank site – i.e. a website with lots of links and authority.

Disadvantages of reciprocal links

  1. Nowadays the search engines down-class reciprocal links, so the whole activity can be a waste of time if the search engines do not recognise them.
  2. Many reciprocal links are made with irrelevant sites, therefore the links are largely worthless.
  3. Many reciprocal links aren’t checked nor maintained, especially after the 24 hour period to see whether the link appeared at all – if they don’t feature your link you’ve provided them with a one-way link that is more valuable!
  4. Your link will be added to a page that is perhaps 3 to 5 pages deep from the homepage. The search engines value links from pages 1 to 3 deep with more importance.
  5. One-way links are more valuable – i.e. no reciprocating link. If you can get these instead they are more valuable.
  6. If you change the structure of the page title (e.g. from /webdesign.html to /web-design) all of the links will vanish.
  7. There are better ways to get links to your website with less effort and that are more relevant. Your time may be better spent on these alternative methods that are current and being recognised by the search engines.

Key Learning

Reciprocal linking is an old-hat part of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and does not carry as much relevance as it once did.

However, it does have its merits if you are willing to select websites that will provide your website with more credibility and that do not feature more than half a page of other web links.

If you’re looking to spend your time on more effective methods of link building stay tuned to the imp-ressions blog for more guidance and tips.