Comments on: Is Reciprocal Linking Bad?

By: Markku Seguerra

Markku Seguerra — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 09:21:56 +0000

Karen, good points. Essentially, link exchange isn’t much different compared to good ol’ word-of-mouth referrals in real life, so ideally it isn’t a problem unless you’re passing on information that isn’t true. I’m sure Google has taken all this into consideration, and knows how to deal with it. Knowing how smart their engineers are, I’m sure they know what they’re trying to catch.

By: Karen Repkan

Karen Repkan — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:10:47 +0000

nothing wrong with link exchange.. its been a great way to brand a website with like minded sites since the birth of the WWW.

Google is having a problem with full duplex link exchange whereas you pay your $50 and get auto-linked to hundreds of sites overnight without any editorial oversite. Avoid any software or service that guarantees links.

Continue to link exchange when it benefits your end users. Continue to link exchange when sites you are linking to add useful content to your website.

We have been link exchanging for years.. we use a software called linksmanager to maintain human control and low/natural volume. if you maintain editorial discretion when making links, and keep the volume realistic, its a very powerful way to attract like minded traffic to your website, and brand your website with related sites in your realm of interest.

By: Oli

Oli — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 13:59:18 +0000

Markku: I think somebody must have hopped in and fixed it. I did try it several times last night including refreshing this page. I managed to get there by using another site that you referenced.

By: Markku Seguerra

Markku Seguerra — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 12:45:22 +0000

@hcabbos: Exactly. Google and all search engines should never stop innovating to provide the best results for its users. Unfortunately, some publishers would rather exploit the system instead, thus the proliferation of spam sites that have no original content at all.

Ideally, good content should be more than enough to get us the traffic we all deserve. But the situation is now so far from ideal.

By: Markku Seguerra

Markku Seguerra — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 06:33:19 +0000

Hi Oli, I don’t see a 404 on the first link. Perhaps there’s a problem with your connection?

By: hcabbos

hcabbos — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 03:08:28 +0000

I think something needs to be done to shake things up. The quality of search results isn’t what it used to be. Somehow, I feel unethical approaches diminish the quality of Google’s product so I think it behooves them to address this. It’s kind of like industry groups buying off our political system. I have 5 clients that place within the top 5 position in Google for various key words within a 100-mile radius of their marketing region. All done without link exchanging. Simply good content and appropriate use of keyword strategies.

By: Oli

Oli — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 00:05:08 +0000

Good job on the first link. 404.