Reality of Reciprocal Linking
Each day I receive e-mail through all my various sites from other site owners or link marketing “representatives” offering to exchange links. I also receive e-mails from clients asking my opinion on the very same type of requests.
Most approach me in such a manner that I do not even consider their request — delete. They neglect to include their name while using a throw-away Gmail account — yeah, that’s credible! I advise my clients to do the same.
See, in a true linking program, it isn’t just about you – it is about both sites involved in the process.
So many of these notices are not from complimentary sites in topic or design — some are actually direct competitors making me wonder why they would think I would link to them. Why would they want to link to me considering my site is clearly of better quality and has much more valuable information?
Because they are hiding their link pages from site visitors; so their site visitors never actually find out about my site!
Right there is a big red flag! If you cannot make your link “directory” visible and easily available to your site visitors, you don’t have the proper modus operandi. If your “links” page doesn’t offer enough value to your target market to make it front and center — then don’t bother in the first place!
Many of these sites have absolutely nothing even remotely similar to the particular site of mine or my clients that they e-mailed. So there is no synergy. In most cases they want a link from me due to my higher page rank — which isn’t the end-all-be-all either by the way.
Here are some basic tips you need to keep in mind and integrate in your linking efforts based on the reality of having an effective and ethical approach. If you cannot take the time to put these issues in play, don’t waste your time or that of the other site owners.
- Stay Away From and Do Not Create Link Farms: “Link Farm” is a term used to describe groups of links that have nothing in common other than the sites involved have all agreed to link to each other for the sole purpose of improving their organic search engine listings. Quality of content, design or site focus is not a consideration that is a requirement to participate. Be selective!
When you create a link directory on your site, you want to have set of guidelines that will be required for sites to be added to your link directory. Only quality links, relational or complimentary to your site’s focus that you know will benefit your site visitors should be considered. Just as you want to see those requesting links from you have done the same.
- Links Need to Make Sense for Both Sites: If the site linking to you has no direct relationship to yours in topic or is a poor quality site — don’t exchange links. Just having links for the sake of doing so doesn’t benefit either site — or your site visitors. Both sites should be able to see why their visitors would be interested in the others site.
Don’t consider e-mailing to exchange links without taking the time to thoroughly review the value of each site you send a request to. Think in terms of the fact that the links off your site need to compliment and add to the overall value for your site visitors.
- Consider Google’s PageRank: PageRank is not the big kahuna everyone thinks it is! Don’t live or die by PageRank. However, when it comes to linking, it can be a useful tool you can use to guide you. Before you begin requesting links, you want to ensure that you at least have a PageRank for your top page.
Not having a PageRank is an indication of a newer Web site or a site that is not considered to have quality valuable content — that is when PageRank is working properly. Sites with higher PageRank are given more relevancy, as are the sites they in turn link to.
- Organize and Categorize Your Directory of Links: Some crawlers have been known to ignore pages x-amount of links. This is because tons of unorganized links on a page indicate “link farm” and do not indicate any sort of value or relational substance to the site in question.
Categorize your links and create a new page when necessary for new topics. This also is more user friendly for your site visitors to find the resources they are interested in. When a specific topic starts approaching half a page, create a subcategory or an additional page. The goal here is to make your link area easy to use and navigate. In my opinion, even 50 links is too much to scroll through. I tend to stick around 25.
You want to do everything you can to avoid the perception of linking purely to manipulate your rankings. When I receive requests from clients asking my opinion about sites with crazy link lists with a link area or page that is not categorized, I advised them to hit delete. I know the requester is creating a link farm which will offer no benefit to me and may have even have a detrimental effect on my organic rankings.
- Have a Plan Before You Request Links: After you have reviewed the sites you would like to exchange links with, (Never spam for link exchanges!) here are some tips to keep in mind before you e-mail them with your request.
- Create a brief but concise e-mail that includes specific instructions on how they can link back to you. You want to make sure that your requested return link text, if at all possible, includes a couple of your main keywords in the link. Also be sure to not provide the same link text for every request. You want to have a diversity of keyword rich link text pointing to your site.
- Be sure to mention why your site and the one you are contacting are complimentary and why a reciprocal link will benefit both sides. If you cannot make this analogy, you probably should not be requesting a link in the first place.
- Have the other site’s link already in place on your site before you e-mail your request and let them know exactly where that is. Be sure if you said their link is in place that it is or you lose credibility and look as though you are not sincere in your offer.
- Include a comment noting exactly where on their site or in what category of their link directory that you would like to see your link. This lets the other side know that you’ve reviewed their site and see the reciprocal value and are not just trolling for links.
- Your Link Directory is Easy to Find: Hiding your link directory deep within your site or not obviously linking to your link directory is a sure sign that you are gathering links for all the wrong reasons.
One of the other benefits of exchanging links is the hope that those who visit the other site, will find yours by following the link to your site. If the link directory is hidden, folks cannot find you which prevents you from garnering this potential additional traffic.
If you receive a request to exchange links and see that the other site has their links area buried where their site visitors will have difficulty finding it, I would decline the request as there is no value there.
Work only with site owners who understand what linking is all about (offering value to site visitors) and have a link directory that is well organized and easily found on their site.
- Spammy Link Requests: You’ve probably received those yourself. Some marketer asking if you are interested in exchanging links with a site they are unwilling to identify until you show interest. What is that!? Or they do not include their name and use a throw-away gmail or yahoo e-mail address. Hmmm… why no name, why aren’t they using the dot com of the site they would like you to partner with?
If exchanging links makes sense there should be no reason to hide the identity of the sender, the site’s e-mail or the site itself. This is an indication the site most likely has no page rank, is not related to yours, or is creating a link farm. Or worse yet they have outsourced their “linking” to a company that doesn’t have a clue. Use these e-mail as an example of what you don’t want to do. Hit the Delete button.
Link exchanges when done properly can serve two purposes. The first being they add value to both sites and offer visibility to an entire new set of site visitors who may not have known the other site even exists to search for it. The secondary reason is that search engines have a ranking algorithm that is built upon evaluating incoming and out going links to your site.
If you do not want to deal with the link exchange process all you have to do is have a high quality, content rich site and the links will happen, over time, without you having to make a single request. Create a site worth linking to and the links will come!
At your service,
Judith
Your WordPress Consultant
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