Is reciprocal linking against Google’s webmaster terms? Well not exactly, but participating in link exchange schemes are. No where in Google’s updated webmaster guidelines does it state that reciprocal linking should be avoided or that they have banned reciprocal linking. It does say to avoid “link schemes.”
It is evident that many bloggers disregard the quality of the blogs they reciprocal link exchange with. This can have a long term negative impact on your rating as Google clearly points out. Google states that “excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (”Link to me and I’ll link to you.”) are a violation of their guidelines.
The question here is what exactly are “excessive” reciprocal link exchanges? The “excessive I link to you and I’ll link to you” part literally addresses the link requests that we have been seeing on many popular forums.
Is linking not suppose to be about creating a list of sites that you recommend to your readership? Blogrolls have now evolved into a place where bloggers list anyone who will link to them.
If your site is being crawled more because of link exchanges, Google’s Matt Cutts points out that “Google is less likely to give those links as much weight now.” Matt further says “It’s not that reciprocal links are automatically bad. It’s more that many reciprocal links exist for the wrong reasons.”
While bloggers think that all those reciprocal links are helping their ranking, it can actually have a negative effect on their ranking.
Google states, “”It is not only the number of links you have pointing to your site that matters, but also the quality and relevance of those links.”
Linking is not against terms and having a blogroll is not against terms from what I understand, but you should pay close attention to how you link, why you link and who you link to.
How to link in order not to violate Google’s webmaster guidelines?
Concentrate on content that creates popularity and focus less on link exchanges.
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7 responses so far ↓
Wrote: Sep 1, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Good article.
I believe that if you try to conduct business on your website properly, Google will not have a problem.
The day the “blogroll” will get you banned from Google is the day millions of bloggers will bring Google to it’s knees.
Wrote: Sep 2, 2007 at 12:26 am
I only place links to blogs I actually like. I don’t put links on my blog simply because I want someone to lonk to mine. Never saw the sense in that.
Wrote: Sep 2, 2007 at 3:33 am
Somehow the idea of link exchanges have seemed like cheating to me and I’ve never participated ina any.
I’ve been looking at a lot of blogs lately. The only ones I add are ones that I like. I never link just because someone has asked me to. Most often, my links come from bloggers who have commented on my blog or from comments they’ve made on other blogs. Linking back to me is not a required. In fact, I’d rather that people only link to my pages if they like what I am doing.
Wrote: Sep 2, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Mike, I think links in blog post carry more weight. That is just my view and that is how I pass on link love.
Gene me either.
Carl your blogroll might get you banned if you are participating in link schemes.
Wrote: Sep 3, 2007 at 3:19 pm
I have never seen so much paranoia about link exchange in my life. Please allow me to provide some fresh perspective.. I have an aviation site and I actively link exchange with other aviation related sites.
Over the past four years my site has been online, I have exchanged links with hundreds of sites. I dont use any programs or softwares that force me to link with other sites. I make link decisions on my own and in natural progression.
I have top 5 rankings for all of my keywords. I receive more traffic every month from the link exchanges than I do from google. I will not be deleting my links pages because of all of this paranoia about regarding reciprocal linking.
People, if you link for your end users and not for seo purposes, you will do fine. the search engines dont want you using these services that force lots of links to your site in a short period of time.
its not right for any search engine to say how I will get links to my site. I will intend to keep linking with other sites (some reciprocal, some not) when the link is useful for my traffic.
Wrote: Sep 3, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Craig the word here is ‘related.’ You actively exchange links with related sites.
From what you have told me here – you are not participating in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking. You are not using programs.
Google never asked you to delete your links. Geez, take a chill pill will you.
Wrote: Sep 5, 2007 at 6:28 am
I think Google will target the “big” players more than bloggers with 10 or 20 exchanged links.
I think their target is more the sort of sites with hudereds or thousands of link exchanges, especially from unrelated sites. Like a PR6 xbox blog linking to medical and insurance websites. Also link farms and sites setup just to sell hudereds of links on one page.