Reciprocal links are links involved in a simple exchange of links between websites. A site agrees to place a link on one of its pages in exchange for a link from your site. It can be a text link or a banner/graphic.
Reciprocal links are arranged when two web sites agree to link to each other, these are also known as "link swaps", "link exchanges" and "link partners".
Reciprocal links help you in two ways:
- Reciprocal links can increase your web site traffic, from people who click on the links.
- Reciprocal links also play a role in improving your rankings in search engines.
Reciprocal links should be part of your links strategy, not your total marketing strategy. Reciprocal links should also come from relevant sites. When ranking sites, the major search engines take into account the number and quality of the sites that link to you. Finding good quality, relevant sites to link to you can be a tedious, time consuming and frustrating process.
Here are some ways to find reciprocal links
- Use major search engines such as Google and Yahoo! to find sites which complement yours but are not direct competitors.
- If your competitors sites have a links page, review the linking sites for potential link partners for your site. Then visit their link pages and so on down the chain. You should then end up with a long list of good sites with which to exchange links.
How to set up reciprocal links
- Find GOOD QUALITY, complementary sites.
- Place a link to them on your site.
- Only AFTER you've placed a link to them, email the owner of the site a short, friendly note. Address him or her by name. (If the name isn't on the site, you may be able to find it at www.whois.sc)
- Genuinely praise something on the site. If you can't find something worth praising, delete the site from your list.
- Tell the web site owner you've linked to their site, giving them the URL of the page where you've place your link.
- Ask for a link back to your site, suggesting a page where the link would be appropriate.
- Three weeks later, if there's been no reply, send a brief, polite reminder. It's easy for emails to be lost or overlooked.
- Use the phone and/or snail mail. A link from a good site is a very valuable thing. If you can't get noticed by email, consider trying a phone call or posting a letter. They're more expensive but also more likely to attract the answer you want.
- Keep an alphabetical record of sites you've linked to and requested links from. You need to know who you've contacted and who you haven't.
Link Exchange Websites
There are essentially 2 types of Link Exchange sites
- Those that contain a directory of websites run by like minded webmasters that allow arrangement of the reciprocal links between sites. The exchange is often monitored by the Link Exchange site.
- An automated Link Exchange. This type of site involves copying code from the site onto a page on your site. This code pulls down from the Link exchange server a Link Directory. There is no control over the links in the directory, you link will be placed on every site that also takes part in the scheme, including totally unrelated websites. Beware this may involve your site in a Link Farm and get your site banned from search engine indexes.
