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Reciprocals a waste of time?

by DavidO
9 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I have not added a single new link to my links page for about 6 months. I didn't adopt this strategy intentionally but I just got very picky and decided to invest my efforts in more rewarding areas (like getting backlinks from highly rated sites).

To my surprise, my SERPs, and traffic, have improved - not only with Google but especially with the other search engines. I've also discovered highly rated sites with no links page at all.

My next move may be to gradually remove all my "junk" links to end up with only a few highly relevant links that could be of real interest to my visitors. The other option I'm considering is to eventually get rid of my links page altogether.

Reciprocal links "may" be helpful for new sites but mine is 2 1/2 years old now and for me it's beginning to look as if they're a pointless waste of time.
#reciprocals #time #waste
  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    Some good, related reciprocal links are still helpful in SEO of your site. They seem to help stabilize the site and sites I have with good reciprocal links don't bounce around in SERP's as much as non-linked sites so often do.

    But - these are good, carefully chosen reciprocal links. If you have junk links that are just leading here, there and everywhere, get rid of them. Just as with social bookmarking, one way links, etc - to get the maximum benefit, you have to do it right.


    kay
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  • Profile picture of the author askloz
    Skip reciprocal linking, it's a waste of time and effort, one way linking has far much more power.
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  • Profile picture of the author scene4u
    25 link partners is about the maximum amount. Any more than that and they will have a negative impact on your site. Try to exchange links with sites with a better PR then yourself.
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  • Profile picture of the author askloz
    Nah...their not, Google looks at it as "Matrix type linking", people who have done this in the past have lost their rankings and besides, it's not a natural way to go about doing linking campaigns.

    10% of reciprocal linking is ok, but even 10% is a waste of time when you can get 1 way backlinks which are far more powerful.

    Originally Posted by karlsult View Post

    Reciprocal links are good in the sense that you can get plenty of them (quantity). So even though they are not of high quality yet you can get a lot of them... so they are as good as others...
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  • Profile picture of the author sunwestdog
    Build a link exchange site. There are free scripts out there and free web space to host it. When I hit fifteen posts, I'll give you some links. Just takes a few minutes a week to keep it updated.
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  • Profile picture of the author francophile
    Agree reciprocal linking to resource / link pages is of VERY limited value.

    Getting one way CONTENT links from relevant quality (or authority) websites is the way to go.
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  • Profile picture of the author YuZool
    I personally wouldn't bother with reciprocal links; it's a waste of time. They are counter-acting each other - unproductive.

    Linking is a sign of showing trust, acceptance, an online vote of confidence.

    Reciprocal linking smells too much like "I'll scratch your back and you scratch mine".
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