Personally, I've never been a fan of reciprocal linking. I've never had reciprocal links on my website, and it's done just fine, ranking well for dozens of search terms. (this despite many experts telling me I had no chance in Google without "lots and lots" of reciprocal links) My oversimplified SEO philosophy is and always has been to build my site and blog for my visitors, and the search engines will take notice.
For those that don't know what reciprocal linking is, it's the old, "I'll link to you if you link to me" routine. Real estate agent sites may generally be the worse abusers of reciprocal linking.
Google and other search engines appear to be devaluing recip links. They have basically said as much over the past several months.
Advanced Access, one of the largest providers of real estate agent web sites just posted this to their blog:
"I was privileged to attend the recent Search Marketing Expo, SMX Advanced 2007, in Seattle, Washington this week. During the Penalty Box Summit session I was involved in some Q & A that involved real estate websites. To be honest I did not intend to ask much more than a general question, but as we dug deeper it became real estate specific. Matt Cutts of Google stated that when we see penalties occur, such as some of the recent real estate website penalties, that webmasters should take that as a sign. Matt stated that conferences and the Q & A time is the best way to publicly say that Google intends to do more about the issue. The issue at hand was the real estate industry being known for its over-zealous reciprocal linking, especially among fellow agents. It was also clarified that different industries are handled differently, and real estate is on the list right now. While recent penalties have been manual, they intend to do as much on the algorithmic side as possible. Tim Mayer of Yahoo concurred with what Matt Cutts said."
I certainly can't tell anyone on what to do with their websites. But if one of the largest site providers on the planet is helping their clients remove links, that's pretty compelling....
Kaushik - There are some "unintentional" recip links on my blog. There are certainly people in my blogroll and I'm in theirs (though the majority of those I've linked contextually to in posts as well - which diminishes the "reciprocalness" of those links). I've never had them on my main site.
I think what Google is eyeing are the more typical links you see on a lot of agents sites that are just dozens of links, often on multiple pages. The standard speech was "If I link to any other agent's site, then it is a relevant link". But let's be real. If I'm an agent in Phoenix, do I really need a couple of hundred California agent links on my site, supposedly to help my visitors "relocate"? What are the chances I'm really going to have a site visitor who is looking for an agent in Maine?
Are you coming to the AR gathering / blog conference on the 21st?
Great post. I have never been a fan of reciprocal links just like Bob and Carolin stated it seems pointless.
Good post. I was one of the chosen few who got penalized about 30 days ago. I always thought reciprocal linking was dumb as well and had not done it for over 1.5 years. However, I made the mistake of not erasing my state pages and all of the reciprocal links in time. I deleted them the 5th of May and I was penalized the 9th of May. I would have done it sooner but I was ranking #1 or #2 for tons of key phrases and the most sought after ones so I did not want to rock the boat.
Hopefully, I will come back in time now. Many of the Advanced Access users who were penalized came back within 30 to 45 days.
Thanks for the info, Jay and Francy !
It was rather timely that I read this right now since I had been considering the past few days to start adding reciprocal links to my website.
One less job to do !
have a wonderful day,
Jo
Hi!
The reason AA sites were penalized was because they were creating "link farms" with all the linked sites being hosted on the same IP address, rather than showing their subscribers how to do reciprocal linking correctly and create legitimate "link directories". What does that mean? They were primarily linking AA sites to each other - pretty incestuous. The search engines know the IP address and the web host where your web site lives. So it is real easy to achieve reciprocal links from eveyone who is being hosted at the same place. Yahoo! and Google saw this as "gaming" the system and took action against those sites with "link farms". And now, AA is just doing a CYA in their blog to downplay the fact that they should have known better! Their technique got many of their subscribers' sites in trouble.
You reference Matt Cutts, at Google. Dirk Johnson responded in another comment to a Post on this subject here on Active Rain. He wrote in part -
"Unfortunately, people read into his comments what they want to hear. Both he and his colleague, Adam Lasnik, have stated emphatically that they do not have a problem with legitimate reciprocation, and they realize that sites will reciprocate to their mutual benefit, as has been done since long before Google existed.
Reciprocation between sites in the same realm of interest is a fundamental web marketing practice that pre-dates every single search engine. For Google to stomp on that would be for them to try to alter the fundamentals of the World Wide Web. The web is network of links. Sites in the same realm will inevitably link to each other.
Cutts and Lasnik do have a problem with sites trying to link to anything and everything. An example of that would be a health supplement site linking to automotive sites, gambling sites, etc.
It is not a matter of believing me or them, since reciprocation will continue on unabated, regardless of what I say, or what some SEO consultant says. This is not about opinion. It should be about actual real world examples. And, if you look at actual search results, especially in real estate, you will see that those reciprocating sites are doing quite well. And this condition applies acutely to the most competitive markets in real estate."
Reciprocation is a practice that pre-dates every search engine. It is entirely appropriate for home and real estate-related sites to link to and from each other, for their mutual benefit and the benefit of their visitors.
The key is what Win Singleton said in the last sentence "link to and from each other, for their mutual benefit and the benefit of their visitors".
Linking was, is now, and always will be about popularity and recommending the landing site for information. It is not about acquiring back links.
I do not participate in reciprocal linking with other web sites. I do, however, understand how it can be benificial to SOME web site, if done honestly, to recomment content on the landing page.
That's what Google had in mind when they built the Frankenstein known as "popularity" or "authority".
Before one participates in a reciprocal linking scheme, as yourself if it is a scheme or if you are honestly recommending a site because of it's content. If you link is on a page of links all linking to a page of links, Goggle will getcha.
Interesting post. My question still remains. If we don't exchange links as in the original "Link exchange" page, than how can we get other realtors websites pointing to our site?
Isn't this all about site popularity rank?
Thank you for your prospective on linking exchanges. It is all new to me . I have no idea how to link if I even wanted too. Is there a simple way to do? What are the steps?
How do you rank so high without those links?
Teresa Johnson
When building a site for our clients we use reciprocal links sparingly. We link to vendors (handymen, lenders, title companies, banks, community links, and to the broker) other than that we don't use them....you shouldn't link to any and everything. In fact if you've ever looked at ANY Advanced Access site they are all full of links and the pages look horrible--alot of my clients were previous Advanced Access customers, and wanted a way to stand out!
Hi,
I don't know what any of your current status is with Advanced Access, but for current information about Advanced Access, we've just started "AAUG - Advanced Access Users Group" which hopefully, as we get going, will bring you up to date and keep you up to date on the company and it's products and services.
You're invited to join and contribute ideas, comments and suggestions if interested.
Larry