Reciprocal Links: Are They Really So Bad? - Using Reciprocal Links Wisely

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Reciprocal links are not all bad. If employed properly, they are an extremely valuable tool for adding value to site visitors, building link popularity, and increasing a site's Google PageRank. If not used correctly, however, reciprocal links can lead to difficulties ranging from loss of visitor traffic to problems with the search engines. Those problems run the gamut from no net benefit to outright penalties.

A good rule of thumb when choosing link exchange partners is whether or not the link provides value for your site's visitors. If every outgoing link provides useful information that is related to the overall content themes of your website, you will have no problems with reciprocal links. In fact, both your site, and that of your linking partners, will benefit greatly.

Think in terms of what will help your visitors first, and you won't go wrong. By keeping all outgoing links from your site on topic, you not only provide useful information to visitors on their current visit, but on all subsequent visits as well. Developing your site into a powerful source of topic information will create more repeat visitors. That thinking builds many more short and long term buyers of your site's products and services.

A powerful technique for building strong theme related reciprocal links is to start a blog on your site. A blog is a daily column usually written by the webmaster, but often composed by staff or even freelance writers, that discusses the business, type of products, industry, and other topics related to the site.

As more blog columns are posted, the number of site themes and keywords in multiplied, adding strength to the reciprocal links. Links that were formerly off topic, become themed as a result of a combination of several blog posts.

Bloggers are free and generous linkers, thinking more about the requirements of their readers, than about search engine placements or Google PageRank. That urge to only share links with related blogs works to their benefit in the search engines, whether it's a concern of the blogger or not.

High blog PageRanks and strong search engine results are also proof, that reciprocal links still have value, if used correctly.

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