Reciprocal Link Building | Link Exchange

Reciprocal links are one way to build link popularity for your web site, however these types of links are frowned upon and have been devalued by Google. It's  the process of exchanging links with other sites similar to yours. Your websites popularity is a major indicator of your website's popularity to the search engines. The more links coming in, the higher you will rank in search results. Here's three benefits to reciprocal linking.

A. Increase Your Website Traffic
B. Increase Page Rank in Search Engines
C. Offer Your Website Visitors Valuable Resources

Some say that Google has discredited reciprocal links and that reciprocal links are losing their value. This is not true. I've seen reciprocal links increase the page ranking on the websites I build. This may be a future concern, but for now, reciprocal linking is a beneficial practice for the reasons stated above.

Exchange Links With Similar Websites

An appropriate link exchange campaign is one where you exchange links with similar websites. Don't link with competitors! You don't want to generate traffic for them do you? Also, remember that the type of links coming in and out of your site effect your search ranking. You get a boost for incoming links that are relevant to your website's content. 

Look for symbiotic linking relationships. Linking with other sites that are similar to yours helps create the appearance of a natural link. For example, a photographer might want to link up with a wedding planner. A realtor would link well with a mortgage broker. A web designer would link well with a printer.

There are those opportunistic webbies who would link up with everything that has a URL. This is not a good idea and can actually work against your search results ranking. It's better to be choosey than to accept everything and risk being penalized by the search engines, or--as in the case with using a rapid-link-up service--banned from the search results indefinitely.

How to Construct Your Link

You want to control the way other websites link to your site when possible. There are many aspects to a well-created link back to your website. Here's a few.

Text Link: Search engines grant more credence to text links because text is the language of the search engine crawlers. Banners, ads and graphics do not give you the same search engine boost as a plain text link. Besides, studies show that web surfers are more apt to click on a text ad over a banner ad any day of the week.

Alt Text: You want the text around your link to be replete with the keywords and phrases that you use to optimize your website. If you are a realtor in Fort Worth, then you need relevant keywords surrounding your link. Search engine crawlers pay a lot of attention to alt text and so should you.

Title: Your title should not be the name of your website. Search engines devalue links that have the same title, supposing the link is "artificial." The goal is to make the link look as natural as possible. Use keywords as your website's title. You can put the name of your site in the alt text if necessary.

Description: This is the same thing basically as "alt text" described above. The description is a place for keywords, but not just keywords. This is also where you compel surfers to click on your site. Try to make this a natural informative sentence without all caps, exclamation points and sales jibe. Sprinkle it with keywords and you've got the perfect linking recipe.

Example Link for The Marketing Shop

Title:            Web Design & Website Promotion

URL:             http://www.the-marketing-shop.com/

Description: 

The Marketing Shop specializes in web design, website promotion and search engine optimization for small business, realtors, attorneys and more. Monthly web marketing email newsletter and website promotion articles and tips.

The Marketing Shop HTML Link Code

If you take the above code and paste it into your website's HTML code, you would get this on your webpage:

Web Design & Website Promotion- The Marketing Shop specializes in web design, website promotion and search engine optimization for small business, realtors, attorneys and more.

Back to Top