Why Reciprocal Linking Isn’t Always Chummy
The SE’s don’t necessarily support the old adage, ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’ (leave it to the Search Engine’s to challenge everything your mother taught you). While inbound links and outbound links are necessary for link building and ranking success, your landscaping company is not going to benefit from mutual links to and from your cousin’s wine store. SEO Book defines reciprocal linking as “Nepotistic link exchanges where websites try to build false authority by trading links, using three way link trades, or other low quality link schemes.” Thus, hysterical, incestuous linking will impair your ranking and ultimately confuse visitors.
As you may have learned, links aren’t to be strewn willy-nilly throughout your site. We applaud careful, premeditated linking that gently builds your credibility while sticking to the subject at hand. Landscaping companies can link to the nurseries they use. Requesting an inbound link from your township will solidify your integrity if you’re looking to rank well locally. The long and short of it is to avoid link hungry binges and employ portion control. Just like research paper citations, your links need to support your subject and strengthen your point. Linking is a wonderful thing when intelligently implemented. Bill Slawski of SEO by the Sea fearlessly dives into Reciprocal Linking here. Just to drop a relevant link.
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