105 replies to this topic

[lots0]

Wow, I pretty much agree with all you said in that last post, Lots0!

Oh My God... Jill have you turned toward the dark side? If you and I are going to start to agree...life will become sooo boring... Just Jokeing

[Jill]

Yes, a spammer I ammer.



Not really. But hey, if you make sense, you make sense and I will agree. If you don't, I won't! I think that's the same as you feel too.



Jill

[lots0]

I think that's the same as you feel too.

Yup... Here we go agreeing again.

[Bad Andy Good SEO]

I agree with Jill and Lotso, if thats allowed? When I read Lotso's post I assumed he was speaking in terms of site to site, or a loop. Jill more clearly defined this.

I personally look through the site I'm linking to and find the most relevant page to the content of the site I'm SEOing for. This way I have a relevant in text link to a site's page that is also just as relevant to theme in question. Not necessarily their home page which may be to general in subject matter.

As for the term reciprocal, by definition it indicates a give-get or win-win relationship. There is no singular to it!

Just my two cents worth.

Andy

[compar]

Except, I do think of reciprocal links as a link from say a links page, that links to say someone else's home page, and then the second page does the same...links from their links page to the other guys home page.

Jill isn't that a too specific definition. I have a link to your site on an article in my InfoPool. If you placed a link back to my site -- home page or otherwise -- anywhere on your site, isn't that a reciprocal link.

I link to you, you link to me. It doesn't matter that the links come from a "links page" as such. Although I agree that is often the case with reciprocal link campaigns.

[Jill]

Sorry, didn't know I was writing a dictionary definition.

Next time I will be clearer.

BTW, I said, "...say from a links page." Meaning that a links page was just an example.

Jill

[lots0]

When I read Lotso's post I assumed he was speaking in terms of site to site, or a loop.

When I talk about reciprocal linking I mean a link from page A to page B and a link from page B to page A, thus creating a linking loop between two pages, it does not matter what domain page A or page B resides on.

I think of linking as a page to page thing only. But that is just me and I don't expect anyone to agree with me.

[Ron Carnell]

Reciprocal links, to my way of thinking, don't necessarily have to be two sides of a teeter-totter. I've seen too many instances of Site A linking to Site C in return for a link from Site B. Ad infinitum.

A reciprocal link is a negotiated exchange of links. Pages don't matter, sites don't matter. Just the intent.

And even the much vaunted Google can't crawl intent.

[qwerty]

I guess this really does come down to one's personal definition. What Ron is talking about I'd call a "link exchange" and I'd say that reciprocal links are a subset of link exchanges in which site A links to site B and site B links to site A.

Then there is a more specific reciprocal link exchange, involving site A page A linking to site B page B and site B page B linking to site A page A. I don't even have a name for that one.

[lots0]

I guess this really does come down to one's personal definition. What Ron is talking about I'd call a "link exchange" and I'd say that reciprocal links are a subset of link exchanges in which site A links to site B and site B links to site A.

I think I agree with qwerty on this.

[compar]

Sorry, didn't know I was writing a dictionary definition.

Next time I will be clearer.

BTW, I said, "...say from a links page."  Meaning that a links page was just an example.

Why do you always get so defensive. I asked this question in my central paragraph.

I have a link to your site on an article in my InfoPool. If you placed a link back to my site -- home page or otherwise -- anywhere on your site, isn't that a reciprocal link.

Why couldn't you say "yes I agree that is a reciprocal" link or "no I think of them as definitely coming from links pages".
Contrary to your perceived opinion I am not attempting to attack or ridicule you with my every comment. 99% of the time I am asking a genuine question. I sure would appreciate a genuine answer rather than the defensive rebuttals that I usually get.

[gototom]

Hello,

My company is a small but growing SEO firm and I have learned a lot from reading Jill's materials.

Regarding link building strategies, this is a very debatable subject and I try to learn from testing different methods and seeing what works. Since Google does not give us any information, testing methods is the only way one might find out what works and what does not.

Anyway, my current beliefs are as follows (this can change monthly):

I agree how competitive your target keyword phrases are, is the first concern, which is mentioned above.

Some very competitive keyword phrases to test and study are:

1. Internet Marketing

2. Search Engine Optimization

Also we can test methods on less competitive ( slightly less competitive) keyword phrases like:

3. SEO Company

4. Internet Marketing Company

5. Marketing Company

Notice the last three end in Company.

If you look at and study the top 3 ranked sites in Google for Internet Marketing you can learn some very interesting lessons.

The first two have the words Internet and Internet Marketing in their domain names.

They have many links pointing to them with exact anchor text, #2 having mostly reciprocal links. #3 webuildpages has a PR8 and mostly reciprocal links.

This same analysis applies to Search Engine Optimization, SEO Company, Internet Marketing Company and Marketing Company.

Seoinc the number one ranked site for search engine optimization has over 12,000 external links pointing to their site, most of these are reciprocal links. They can gain many non reciprocal links by having their clients sites link back to them with them not returning the links, and they can and do control the anchor text. Many good SEO companies do however return the links in order to help their clients rankings. Webuildpages is a good example of this. They give links from their home page to their clients home pages.

You can see external links that point to your site by using the following in the Google search box. Just use your domain name instead of mine.

link: www.htpcompany.com -site:www.htpcompany.com

This is useful because your external links and your backward links (from the Google toolbar are different)

Clearly Google as access to both. Furthermore both seem to have impact on rankings.

HTPcompany.com is #1 for SEO Company, Internet Marketing Company and #4 for Marketing Company. So I have some proof of what I am talking about. However I am always learning.

I think a non reciprocating link is best. The problems obtaining these types of links are multiple. E.g. It is difficult to control what anchor text people use to link to your site. You can pay for these non reciprocating links, which will work unless Google thought you were breaking there rules. I hear a lot of talk about being banned from Google, however if you look at over 3 billion web pages only an extremely small percentage of web sites are banned. I am not saying it is impossible just rare. An example of buying a great non reciprocating link is Digits.com. They have a PR9 (which I think is crazy) Yahoo has a PR9, so is Google telling me Digits.com is as important as Yahoo? If you go to Digits.com notice the links at the bottom of their page (webuildpages). This is where webuildpages obtains a great deal of their PR from. also notice the anchor text.

I do not think currently that links from topic related sites is that big of an issue. I also saw some write up by Jill on this topic. I go for both topic related and non topic related link exchanges. However we create a Directory organized by Category. I do not think organizing them by category is even necessary today. I do agree that if you do what is best for your sites visitors this will help increase your traffic in the long run.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Tom Forrest

[BrianR]

Hey - is this a private fight, or can anyone join in?? <g>

Qwerty, I just LOVE inventing new words or phrases!

So why not call your first example a 'reciprocal site-link' and your second a 'reciprocal page-link'.

I'm sure you can better that - it's just my 'starter for ten'. (Thinks: I wonder if they use that expression [starter for ten] in the USA, or maybe they're not aware of its etymology?...)

BrianR

[Jill]

Welcome, GotoTom!

Thanks for the useful post!

I edited out your URL, etc., from the bottom of the post, as you can go in and create a signature in your Controls that will place it on every post.



Jill

[compar]

I'm sure you can better that - it's just my 'starter for ten'. (Thinks: I wonder if they use that expression [starter for ten] in the USA, or maybe they're not aware of its etymology?...)

Being a Canadian I thought I knew a lot of UK expressions or idioms, but I've never heard of that one. Please explain.