Unintentional Reciprocal Links Options

[barryy]

Hi Guys,

We have a number of links in to our site and we have created a page to let people know the buzz on our brand (beautorium). There are pdf's of magazine articles but also direct links through to blog articles - which of course link through to us.

Will the links to the blogs that I created penalize my site in any way...?

Of course, the blog sites are all relevant content....

Thanks for your help,

Barry.

[Jill]

Will the links to the blogs that I created penalize my site in any way...?

Not sure I understand the question.

What about the blogs worries you in regards to getting penalized? Is there something spammy about them? If you can clarify what you're concerned about, that might help.

[piskie]

Unintentional Reciprocal Links

I think the Title of the post is the crux of the concern here.

[Michael Martinez]

Linking back to the blogs that have already linked to your site should be fine. As long as you have attracted natural links from a variety of different types of sites, a few reciprocal links usually don't cause any problems.

[mal4mac]

It's perfectly reasonable for someone to create a site and then create a blog that talks about pages on that site. Why would Google penalise you for that? I would expect Google to treat links from your blog in the same way as internal links on your own site. That is, as useful links that might give you a boost in the SERPs. But don't expect them to be as effective as real external links. Look for threads on internal linking to see how effective it might be. Rule of thumb: fhe first few internal links you give a page will be quite effective, but after that they become much less effective. So don't link to one page a hundred times, but to twenty pages a few times.

[Jill]

I think the Title of the post is the crux of the concern here.

Oops, you're right. I never notice titles of the posts when they're not reiterated in the post itself.

In that case, the original poster is under the false impression that a reciprocal links are penalized. Since they're not, there's nothing to worry about.

Hope this helps!

[1dmf]

are recipricol links 'devalued' ?

It would be funny if you got an IBL from a site and didn't know it, you happend to visit their site, liked it and linked to it, unknowingly creating a recipricol link arrangement.

Perfectly natural linking, but recipricol all the same, it must happen all the time (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol.gif)

[thefandango]

Although it might happen not and again, Im not sure someone could be unlucky/negligent enough to continually destroy their IBL's through turning them into recips...could they?!

[Randy]

As Jill already said, reciprocal links are not penalized. It's one of those self-sustaining Seo Myths.

Nothing to worry about as long as both sites are quality sites and relevant.

[thegypsy]

hmmmm..... Jill, I do believe right in the Goog guidelines it does speak of 'excessive reciprocal' links.. and I have covered a few patents that look at excessive recips (and 3-4-5 way links). I wouldn't be as bold to state they aren't an issue, but they 'could' be when done in extremes. In the case mentioned (and in most cases) I doubt it's something to worry about...

* Links intended to manipulate PageRank
* Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
* Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you.")
* Buying or selling links that pass PageRank”

from; http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/b...py?answer=35769


Yes it's generally not a problem - But if;

a. your link profile is predominantly recips
b. you get a visit due to tripping other red flags...

..there is the potential to run into trouble. Obviously these are the extremes but I would go as far to say "recips are cool; go nuts' either. And in most cases, it wouldn't result in a penalty in as much as a devaluation/filter of said links. A 'penalty' generally denotes being tossed or having drastic (site wide) ranking reductions... Most papers/patents I've seen on this talk about devalutions (which some may call a 'penalty').

Now, if you are participating in other hanky panky (paid links, stuffing... bla bla bla) then the last thing you'd want is closer inspection due to tripping an excessive recip filter... Personally, I play above board and wouldn't have to worry about either (tripping recip or closer inspection) - but I'm just sayin'

So, I do agree that recips aren't 'generally' a problem, but to say they don't have the potential for it, might be over-stated.


(Nice to cya all BTW... found the thread via Barry)

ciao

[Jill]

So, I do agree that recips aren't 'generally' a problem, but to say they don't have the potential for it, might be over-stated.

Of course. Anything in the "extreme" can raise red flags.

But reciprocal links, in general are not penalized. And I purposely stated that reciprocal links are not penalized, because so many people get these crazy thoughts in their head because they see stuff like that Google Guideline, and they miss the word "extreme."

[Randy]

Plus the next question is one nobody can ever answer. Not even Google apparently. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol.gif) That question is: What is extreme or excessive? Where is the line in the sand?

No matter how you cut it, if you only link out to places you think your users will actually find to be valuable you're pretty darned safe. And if you link just because you think the search engines might like it you'll end up being burned eventually because it's simply the wrong approach.