The Truth About Reciprocal Link Networks

pcdoc · 11-22-2005, 11:19 AM

FYI

Shortly after stage 2 of the recent Google algo update began, I received an email from a panic stricken ex-client. He woke up on a Monday morning to find all of the recent gains we had made Google were gone.

I was a bit shocked to hear this because this particular project was as “white hat” as they come. And from a keyword standpoint, it wasn’t even close to being a space that any competent SEO would consider competitive.

My initial reaction was to simply ignore the email. He was no longer a paying client, so why waste the time looking into it? But then curiosity got the best of me. So I fired up some tools and started to do some digging.

http://www.webguerrilla.com/linking/...link-networks/

PBFerrigan · 11-22-2005, 11:38 AM

Great Post!

Thank you for linking to this, I have forwarded it to some other people that I work with.

-Peter

webmaster · 11-22-2005, 11:45 AM

Certainly one wants to avoid "flags" in this case I think the answer is obvious, if you are clipping along adding 1-2 links a day for a year and then boom! You add a thousand, you are going to get someone's attention.

He didnt place the reciprocal directory on his site? Big deal! - They are still going to evaluate all the inbound links to verify the source, if it is a paid network of thousands of links then you are obviously buying into that system in order to artificially inflate your pagerank and or link popularity.

Make your link building natural, and keep it consistent, you will have much better results.

VRI · 11-22-2005, 04:36 PM

Very true and how's he doing now? There were alot of sites that seemed thrashed after j2 that are pretty much back to where they started.

Sorry if it's in the article.

clint48 · 12-12-2005, 12:41 PM

I have a site that was de-listed with Google. I was a member of a link exchange program and exchanged about 400 links. I don't know why I was de-listed, but I am thinking of getting out of the linking program. The concern I have is Google will probably not add my site back to their index, and getting rid of the links may cause me to drop in some of the other search engines I am still listed in.

Clint

frobn · 12-17-2005, 07:45 AM

The various ways of obtaining links have been and will continue to be debated, I see a consensus on link value emerging. In no particular order: Feel free to add/change/dispute.

Declining strategies
Links from:
* link buying
* mass email link requests
* free directory submission
* reciprocal linking

Ascending strategies
Links from:
* one-way text links from relevant pages
* article submission
* niche directories