Reciprocal links
The reciprocal link—is it helpful?
Webmasters know that inbound links raise the value of their site in the eyes of search engines. Mike Moran, co-author of Search Engine Marketing, Inc., explains that high-quality inbound links, in the right number, can favorably affect your search rankings.
But what if you make an agreement with another Webmaster to exchange links? Are reciprocal links valuable? "Yes," says Moran, "but not as valuable as one-way links." According to Moran, there is a valid place for reciprocal links.
Evidence shows that while a reciprocal link boosts page ranking to a lesser degree than one-way links, there is a second, and quite valuable reason, to exchange links.
What are reciprocal links?
When two Web site owners agree to exchange links, as in, "I'll link to one of your pages if you'll link to one of mine," that's a reciprocal link. Historically, this technique was used in an effort to gain improved search rankings. If a good inbound link will improve my search rankings, went the thinking, then why not entice a link by offering a good link in return?
Search engines quickly caught onto exchanged links, and assigned them a bit of demerit. 
That is, the one-way inbound link is a little more valuable to you than a reciprocal link. However, a link exchange does not hurt your rankings either. In fact, it can improve your rankings, but to a lesser degree than a one-way link. This is as it should be.
Moran explains that small or new Web sites that have few inbound links might find reciprocal links valuable to their search rankings and page rankings, simply because it increases the number of inbound links that you have.
The other benefit of reciprocal links
Many Web owners now realize there's a stronger reason for a link exchange—it improves your presence in search hits. Here's an example: my other Web site, which is called Betterway Press, has a link to Psych Central from its dieting newsletters to Psych Central's list of diet resources.
In return, the Psych Central Web site links to my Diet Survivors newsletter and my Yahoo! Diet Survivors message board. This means, plain and simple, that a visitor to my site might find Psych Central, and a visitor to Psych Central might find my site. The benefit? Increased exposure on the Web for both.
In sum, there are two separate reasons to exchange links.
- To help raise your page ranking, although a one-way link will exert more influence
- To make your site visible in other folks' search results.
How to think about links
According to Mike Moran, it all goes back to benefit to your visitors. In his book, Search Engine Marketing, Inc., Moran explains that search engines are locked into an orbit of continuous algorithm-tweaking, the purpose of which is two-fold:
- To make search results rankings as natural as possible so that searchers find what they really want
- To outwit any fleeting spam techniques that developers seize on in order to artificially boost their rankings
Moran says it's not worth the effort to seek out these spam techniques, because the search engines will quickly catch on, and tweak the algorithm to prevent the spamming. And you can even get your Web site banned. So, where does that leave Web developers? The answer is to do what benefits your visitors, and that philosophy ultimately will make the search engines happy too.
So, when it comes to links, think of each of your pages as a potential "search landing page." Construct your page so that visitors will want to return to it and so that Webmasters will want to link to it. Write your page copy so that it really answers your visitor's questions that caused them to search in the first place. That means considering people first and foremost, rather than focus too much on what the search engines are doing.
It is clear that the only valid link exchange involves a relevant, beneficial link for your visitors.
How to campaign for a reciprocal link
- Find sites that you respect that attract the same kind of people that your site does. If you think that your visitors will find a site useful, then you can ask for a reciprocal link. "You need to avoid direct competitors, but just about anyone else is fair game," says Moran.
- Construct an e-mail in which you explain the benefit of the link exchange.
- In the e-mail, link to the page on your site that you have in mind for them to link to.
- Already have your outbound link to their site in place on your site so that the Webmaster will see that you have linked to their page in good faith. Include the link to that page in your e-mail. You can always remove it if no agreement is reached.
- Keep a record of this link exchange agreement in your saved e-mail or some other retrievable place. From time to time, check and make sure they are still linked to you. If you find the link has been dropped, it may be inadvertent, so write a friendly note asking whether the Webmaster had meant to drop your link. If they did, then feel free to back out of your end of the bargain as well.
You may call us odd, and you're probably right, but I construct these same link campaign e-mails when offering a reciprocal link to my husband, Mike Moran. Perhaps we're just business-like, or maybe it's to keep me on my toes. But I never want to presume that one of my technical pages is valuable to him just because I'm Search Wifey. If he is going to link to me, the page needs to be valuable to his visitors.
He even restricted his link to my writer site and our son David's home page to his about Mike Moran page.
A few guidelines about reciprocal links
- Go beyond the home page and offer deeply-linked pages. Those are the pages with a narrower topic, and might more likely appeal to your prospective linker.
- Question equality and the meaning of "exchange." If you link from your page "A" to the other guy's page "B," the reciprocity does not have to be a link from page "B" to page "A." Perhaps it could be a link from page "C" to page "D." And perhaps your one link might be worth two of your partner's links. Negotiate this.
- The external page that you link to should be meaningful and relevant to your visitors and to your page that is doing the linking.
- Keep in mind that you are offering this exchange in good faith. If your page is about to become orphaned (no longer active on the Web) or you've coded the other guy's link within javascript, the link will be useless to him. (Spiders do not see html that is coded within Javascript.)
- If you campaigned for a link exchange, but were turned down, best to keep a record of this. You do not want to bother the Webmaster a few months later with another request unless conditions have changed drastically, such as having an entirely new page to offer.
- When you code your outbound link, make the anchor text meaningful. Avoid anchor text such as this: click here. Instead, aim for meaningful text, such as: find out free ways to attract links.
- Likewise, you want your inbound link to have meaningful anchor text, so offer a suggestion or two to your prospective linker. Your anchor text should contain keywords which you know your searchers are typing into their search engines to find your page. You know your keywords better than anybody, so don't be afraid to ask for specific keywords to be in the link. The webmaster will probably appreciate not having to think for you.
Thoughts from Mike Moran on reciprocal links
Mike Moran offers these final thoughts:
- "One drawback [of a reciprocal link] is that you might provide reciprocal links to sites that would have eventually given you one-way links, but if you really think your visitors benefit from a link to that site, it's no big deal.
- "You need to make sure that you actually get the link back from the site, and that it is a link that the spiders can follow. Some tricky operators try to code links in JavaScript or other tricky techniques so that your reciprocal link looks like a one-way link to the search spider.
- "Don't lose track of why links are important and that there are many ways to get them besides reciprocal link campaigns. You want links to your site so that visitors will follow them—it's also great that search engines value them. The best way to get links to your site is to create a site that is so compelling that everyone just has to link to it. There are many ways to attract these valuable one-way links that Webmasters should focus on."
Find out more
Want to find out how else to make the most of your Web site? The book, Search Engine Marketing, Inc., by Mike Moran and Bill Hunt, is available on Amazon.com. There's something for everyone in this thorough, delightfully written text that covers every aspect of Search Marketing. I know from the inside—I personally ripped it to shreds a few times while it was in the making.
Click on the book cover for more information.
And just who is Linda Moran, and why does she call herself "Search Wifey?" Find out who is Linda Moran?
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Last Modified: Saturday, 12-Jan-2008 21:49:28 PST Linda Moran
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