Yea I never found an answer on this can someone tell me?

Well you first have to ask if participating in link exchanges offers a ranking advantage. Whereas the answer is no. So a few probably wont harm you, but if it starts looking like a link farm then it possibly could.

waveshoppe wrote:

Well you first have to ask if participating in link exchanges offers a ranking advantage. Whereas the answer is no. So a few probably wont harm you, but if it starts looking like a link farm then it possibly could.

what do you mean just standard link exchanges? if so why would it look like a link farm? you need link exchanges with others to rank higher so I dont understand your reply dude

"you need link exchanges with others to rank higher so I dont understand your reply dude" Well I dont think you understand SEO dude.

One way links still have some influence on search engine results, but link exchanges are are ineffective and have been for years.

thats not what google say they still value link exchanges within your niche + link exchanges are not just about the SE's are they, they also help with word of mouth which gets more visitor which is what SEP is all about so I think go for the link exchanges as long as its not a bad site it should not be bad for your site.

We have had no bad out comes from any link exchanges we have made only good with higher serp, more views and more sales. So surely link exchange are still a go part of seo?!

Well I don’t pay much attention to what Google says. It you take the top 50 factors that influence ranking, link exchanges are at the bottom of the heap, maybe even a negative factor. While link exchanges may assist with crawling and discovery, you cant say definitively that the exchanges themselves are directly responsible for a ranking improvement. Having the page indexed is closer to the truth and now a days that can be accomplished with a lot less effort. So if link exchanges are the main platform for ones SEO it will only keep you on an even platform with the other link exchangers. The goal in SEO is to dominate query space and not float around in the sediment with everyone else.

I get lots of link requests and over 75% of the time they will be to a third site that has nothing but links in it. Not even posing as a directory. So would these count - NO!!

I then get requests and the link page looks fine, bit is not linked to any other page (or from) on the main site so remains invisible to the bots. So would these count - NO!!

Or even if they do link but they have 3,000 links over hundreds of pages. So would these count - NO!!

Common sense prevails. If humans cannot see it and the directory or link page has no human value, then in my view it has no PR or SE value either. Being on the 40th page of a link exchange means you might as well be invisible.

If your link pages are like this, then it is time to refine the list, shed the porr ones and keep the good ones and get better ones.

My view anyway.

Google is rightly penalizing bad linking practices, webmasters who obtain links (sometimes irrelevant) in high volume using full duplex software's or services that make links without editorial discretion.

In regard to linking, the Google Webmaster and Quality Guidelines have not changed (although they did update them recently), saying in part:

"Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links ... Keep in mind that our algorithms can distinguish natural links from unnatural links. Natural links to your site develop as part of the dynamic nature of the web when other sites find your content valuable and think it would be helpful for their visitors. Unnatural links to your site are placed there specifically to make your site look more popular to search engines."

So if google considers the reciprocal linking between the two sites as artificial way of enhancing the Page Rank of a site then you could be in danger.

I personally think that reciprocal links are useful for getting a website first established but after that I don't think that they have much value.

I think that Google will rank websites higher that naturally get one way links as people are linking to your content with an intent that your content is good and valuable.

I would also not recommend getting involved with a link exchange network as most of these are reciprocal link based anyway but if you really want to join one to save time I would recommend one where it is one-way link based.

Overall I don't think that reciprocal links have a negative or positive value on your SERP ranking.

I thought that link exchanges were ment more for helpping you site with:
PR,
Getting better known (advertisments in away)
and more authority in your sites niche

Is that not what true link exchangeing is all about when you think about? I mean what eals would you want a link exchange for other then to help your site views and the above?

I know as waveshoppe said link exchanges are not a main factor in SEO but they still have their reasons in my view.

It really depends on how the Google algorithm works these days.

If Site A has a PR of 8 and Site B has a PR of 1 and they both link to each other, will the PR 8 contribute towards Site B to improve the PR?

Would Google really consider this as it has detected a reciprocal link?

I'm simply against reciprocal linking as this would be very easy for a computer program (e.g Googlebot) to detect the sites taking part in the exchange.  I would say that the majority of websites which take part in reciprocal link exchanging is for an intention that it will contribute towards their SEO, not because they think their content is valuable.

I'm just taking a generalisation on link exchange networks.

Reciprocal links should of course relevant to your site.. Quality back links are the best compared to those irrelevant sites that you are getting..

Personally I am glad to see the back of reciprocal links. Takes up too much time and nothing to stop the other site from deleting your link after.

Wendy

wendyann wrote:

Personally I am glad to see the back of reciprocal links. Takes up too much time and nothing to stop the other site from deleting your link after.

Wendy

best way to find out if they have your link still for free is on https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/ just but the direct link to the page you link should be on and you can search just that page for your link

I still think that link exchange is good thing even if the likes of google drop it as it will still get you more exposure if you exchange with relevant sites

exchange with relevant sites is good if this sites are linked to your site content.
<url removed>

wendyann wrote:

Personally I am glad to see the back of reciprocal links. Takes up too much time and nothing to stop the other site from deleting your link after.

Wendy

Manually checking links does take up a lot of time and it may not even provide you with any reward at the end of the day.

Your best off using an SEO software package which will monitor these kind of things for you.  You want to spend your time wisely marketing your business.

Here are some I suggest, some better than others:

IBP
SeoElite
Apex SEO Suite

Have a look on Google and type in something like "seo software reviews", you should be able to get links to the latest reviews from there.

Artezanal wrote:

exchange with relevant sites is good if this sites are linked to your site content.
<url removed>

What relevance does the URL you have posted in this discussion have towards topic?  Is this merely a opportunity to get links to a slowly establishing site and spam this discussion with irrelevant links?  If it is, you may be wasting your time due to the following reasons:

1.  Site admin will most likely ban you!
2.  Theres no link text within the link so the search engines don't know what to put weight on in the calculation process for ranking of keywords.
3.  The website you are linking to isn't even in the same language, therefore this will have less value in your one-way link.
4.  The link to the external website is completely irrelevant to the topic of this website.  The keywords which exist on your website would have to exist somewhere on this website as well as on this discussion post to give the link value.

Anyway, good luck with your link building!

"What relevance does the URL you have posted in this discussion have towards topic?  Is this merely a opportunity to get links to a slowly establishing site and spam this discussion with irrelevant links?  If it is, you may be wasting your time due to the following reasons:

1.  Site admin will most likely ban you"

At least one person understands our point of view.

What about Directory Listing services that don't require reciprocal links?  Is it okay to subscribe to them?

jimisan wrote:

What about Directory Listing services that don't require reciprocal links?  Is it okay to subscribe to them?

If your asking about directory submission services… no harm will come as long as you don’t have to link back. But understand that the quality of the links will be low, thus your link profile will be poor quality and unstable.

Recomended reading are the threads at: http://forums.site-reference.com/topic/ … ingertips/