Reciprocal link building and how it will help your website ranking

In the last issue we talked about referrer logs. In this issue we are going to talk about reciprocal link building and how it will help your website ranking.

When it comes to SEO reciprocal link building is a long way towards giving your site good rankings. Especially if your site is relevant or related to the topic and subject of the site you are linking to. It is also a very effective way to drive traffic to your site.

Reciprocal links have been around a long time. Unfortunately, they are an often overlooked or an under-used method and as with any strategy there are advantages and disadvantages involved. So, should you be using reciprocal linking in your marketing strategy?

That is a very good question, and in today’s issue we’re going to go over some things you should consider about reciprocal linking, and how it will effect your business.

Let me ask you this question. How many times have you searched for a Website to link to, only to find out that they don’t even have a links page?

Of those that do, few have an area on their website that actually welcomes you to request a link trade. It seems these websites are missing the boat when it comes to the World Wide Web’s strange, yet shockingly efficient linking system.

Before you begin your reciprocal linking plan. Here are some things that you should consider:

• Make sure that you are linked to relevant sites meaning you both have the same subject matter and at the same

time all the links are also related to each other.

• Remember that it’s more about quality than

quantity when it comes to reciprocal link building. Look for quality sites that are related to your topic.

• Keep in mind that this is a long and sometimes frustrating process because you still have to check to see if other websites have agreed to the link exchange and you will need to check periodically to see if the link to your site is still present on the websites that you have made exchanges with.

• Be prepared for rejection. Some webmasters may turn down your request. If that’s the case, you may want to take their link off your site.

• Examine the other sites link pages, are they indexed and visited by the major search engines? If the site doesn’t have good rankings it probably won’t do you any good to link to them.

• When requesting a link exchange, consider the links that are already displayed on the other site. They should be relevant to your website. Also take the time to check and make sure that the site doesn’t have a lot of broken links, because it will effect way the search engines spider the site.

• Another thing to consider is how many links are displayed on the page you were thinking about linking to. It is a good idea not to link with a page has more than 30 to 40 links on it.

Be sure to follow the basic link exchange rules set in place by the sites you want to trade links with. The site that you are exchanging links with should exist in major search engines and have good traffic ranking. Alexa.com is a great way to check out a site’s rankings and traffic flow.

All and all-reciprocal linking can be a good, free way of achieving high website ranking, but keep in mind that you should periodically check the status of your links and site rankings, so that you can get the most out of your efforts.

Make sure you look for your next issue soon. We will be talking about tools that you can use to monitor your website.