Reciprocal Links Or One Way Links?
-
After reading a recent blog post on guest blogging and ways to build relationships for link building purposes, I began to wonder about something.
It is my understanding that one way backlinks are superior to reciprocal linkage, but reciprocal is better than no link at all.
So is it still worthwhile to do reciprocal guest blogging, and will the value of the links be worth it when completed?
Or should we just be of the opinion that:
One Way Link > Reciprocal > No link
-
I believe that if Website A links to Website B and at the same time Website B links to Website A that the links can still be valuable. Great websites link to other great websites all of the time. I don't think that Google will discriminate against those links unless.......
A) the websites are entirely unrelated to one another (about very different topics
B) the links are in a dumb location such as on a "link exchange" page or footer
C) the links are highly optimized anchor text
So, as long as the links are placed in a context that is valuable for the visitor these links still have a chance to carry value.
As for guest blog posting... if you have a local history site in the United States and guest blog on a site about hydraulic jacks in Germany then I think you are wasting your time. But if both of these sites are about the local history of the same area then, in my opinion, these webmasters could very legitimately be colleagues who refer to each others work and enthusiastically share ideas with one another's visitors.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Why are bit.ly and ow.ly links showing up as Inbound Links?
Hello! I noticed this question was asked a while back (around 2013 i think), but I still don't quite understand why I'm seeing these shortened URLs come up as Inbound Links? Can someone please explain? Thanks,
Link Building | | txwildcard
Carlos0 -
Link building strategy - my weak link!
Please help me understand link building. I've read the articles on Moz, but they seem vague to me. Specific questions: 1. How do I get my webpage on good quality sites? 2. Guest blogging? Good or not? 3. What about when people pick up one of our blog stories and publish it on their site with a link back? Is that bad now because it is duplicate content??? 4. Forum posts with a link in the signature? Good or not? 5. Directories - I get it that these are no longer good... are they severely negative? Should I take them down. 6. PR - Looks like this is bad... right??? 7. Youtube - any value? 8. Pinterst, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram? Any value to backlinks here? 9. What about sites like redit? 10. Anything else I should consider?
Link Building | | CalicoKitty20000 -
Wierd link
We have recently receive linek from one website. The site is quite very powerful for the word we try to rank, however the link is kind of wired. This is how it looks like: http://villasdiani.com/?db The webmaster of the site said that he ads (?db) on the end so as we would see on our analytics the traffic from his site.. Also the link is from footer...is this good or it does not have value
Link Building | | VillasDiani0 -
Reciprocal linking penalty?
Hey, I have a site with a possible excessive reciprocal linking penalty. It has had a -50 penalty since October. I sent a reconsideration request in December but there has been no change. I actually dumped all the recip links from my site back in 2009, but there were thousands of them - it really was an excessive campaign that went on for years. Would it be worth it to try and have the recip links removed, like what people do with a paid links penalty? I can get the email addresses of most of these sites but it will be a huge undertaking. I haven't done anything else wrong with this site, but it does have a content problem that I've been working on. It was hit by the very first round of Panda, but I was working that out up until the penalty in October. What would you do?
Link Building | | melusine0 -
Do No follow links from social media platforms transfer authority or value when they link to third party websites?
With social media playing a bigger role in SEO (since the Panda, Penguin updates etc) and how search engines rank sites now, does anybody know why Twitter for instance has 'no follow' when I check my client's websites under 'inbound links' on Open Site Explorer?
Link Building | | caroline19770 -
Text Link vs image link?
Which passes most link juice a text link or an image with the correct 'alt' attribute? Do the pass the same amount or is one more valuable than the other?
Link Building | | SamCUK0 -
Link building
I have two separate websites on different servers and was wondering that since reciprocal links effectively eliminate each other, I'm curious if this link strategy will keep the links counting. Here's the strategy: I will have someone link to my site A and if i link to their site from my site B in a three way link strategy, will the links count even though both my site A and B have me listed as the Whois so Google knows that both sites are owned by me? Or will the links be discounted as reciprocal? Thanks in advance for your feedback! Take care, Ron
Link Building | | Ron100