The Internet is all about links. Reciprocal links are a means of providing a simple one-to-one referral to another website, which is the entire purpose of the Internet - to find what you want when you want it. But the question about reciprocal linking - exchanging links with another website - keeps coming up. On our company website, http://www.sigmaonegroup.com/, you will find an article about reciprocal linking. Here are a few notes worth repeating.
Pages upon pages of links to sites that reciprocate the link back to your site (or to a third party site) for the purposes of leveraging a site up into the search engine results is NOT - I repeat NOT - permissible according to the stated "TOS - Terms of Service" on Google.
I've been quoted numerous times for saying that reciprocal linking is not a bad thing. It is not, but some quotes were out of context. There are "rules", if you will. But haphazardly formatted reciprocal linking for the sole purpose of gaining improved search engine ranking results in an attempt to spam the search engines is easily detected (just in case you were wondering) and can produce a negative effect.
HOW TO SET UP AND MANAGE A RECIPROCAL LINKING PROGRAM
If your purpose and intent in establishing a reciprocal linking program is to provide a means by which people may find other information on the net, then you should establish it. If your intent is to gain increased ranking position in the search engines, reciprocal linking is NOT the way to do that - rather, you should put your fingers to the keyboard and create (note - not borrow) original content that adds value to the online community. Write is right.
Shortly after posting this note about recirpocal linking, someone took it for full face value and began launching hundreds of pages of content every week in the form of BLOGs and other websites, with tons of links to their main site. So, some clarifications are needed here. Pushing out hundreds of pages of content with similar purpose is spam. I guess it is easiest to say it this way - do the right thing, and it will be successful. If the motive is to trick the search engines, it will get detected; if the motive is to add value to the Internet and benefit other people, the the rewards will come.
With that said, here is the method by which a reciprocal linking program should be run.
- Establish a list of the people to whom you wish to link. That list should consist of people you would refer other people to for services, products, advice, or whatever they sell or offer. Note - affiliate programs do not fall into this category regardless of who they are or what they do. Affiliate programs are intended to provide a means of revenue to compensate the creator of original content and benefit the affiliate offor with clients. (More later on affiliate programs).
- Contact every person on your list to ask them if you may link to them and if they will link back to you. You probably have received numerous email solicitations for reciprocal links. Typically, they say something along the lines of "I visited your website today. Your content would be of interest to my clients and my content would be of interest to yours."
- Create a directory for your reciprocal links. For example, you can call it something as simple as /links, or you can more descriptive (wisconsin-attorney-referrals, for example), but you need not be descriptive here because these pages are not being written for search engines and you may be much better off to save your descriptive words for your file names. The first file in that directory will be the index file. That is the page on which you will link to another site.
- Before publishing that page, set a no index, no follow rule on any pages containing links to sites that you cannot vouch for. To do so, you include a meta data tag (meta tag) in the header. The meta tag is named "robots" and the meta content is "NoFollow,NoIndex".
- List all of your buddies, with their website addresses hypertext linked. "Hypertext linked" means that it is an active link to that website. For example, http://www.sigmaonegroup.com/. You can also use descriptive anchors, such as, lawyer online and offline marketing and link from those words to the intended target site, here that would be Sigma One Group because that is one of Sigma One Group's offerings. The anchor text serves to make an "online referral" for "lawyer marketing on and offline." You need not include a "no index, no follow" meta tag or link description to sites that you can vouch for as being reputable websites of reputable lawyers (perhaps in other states).
- Publish. It is a good idea to receive a link before extending one. But somebody has to be first. If you are doing the inviting, the standard procedure is for you to create a link to their site first. If you publish first, just be sure to verify that a link to your site has been published.
- MANAGE THE PROGRAM. Once you set up a reciprocal linking program, you assume the responsibility for managing it. If you fail to manage it, and links become broken, as they often do, the broken links will be detected. When they are deted, you can and likely will loose ranking and may be removed from the index until such time that you fix the program. If your site is removed, there are no guarantees that it will be included again in the search engine index.
Always be sure to check your outbound links often. Test your links to other sites to ensure that the link still works. Sometimes, people move their websites without implementing the correct server commands (301 redirect) or forwarding script.
Always check your inbound links often. Test the link back to your website. If the link is broken, let the webmaster know that it needs to be fixed.
Can broken inbound links cause problems for a site?
Absolutely.
If another website inbound's to you with a broken link, but includes the domain name and TLD (sigmaonegroup is a domain name, and .com is a TLD), the search engines will follow the link to your site and search for the page. If the page is not found, the search engine robots will receive an error message. If your web server is properly configured, the error will be a 404- Page Not Found. If there are numerous broken links, the effect can be negative. You can verify what the search engines see as inbound links to your site by using sitemaps and checking your inbound statistics often.
Side Notes:
I've read some online notations indicating that including the "No Index, No Follow" syntax in your meta data provides a benefit. Again, at some point in time, the effects will likely parallel your intent. If you intend to spam the search engines, the effects will be negative - either immediately or at some later point.
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