Reciprocal Links – Good or Bad?

We’re often asked – are reciprocal links good or bad? This topic is like an SEO yo-yo – support for reciprocal linking goes up-and-down so frequently that I thought it was time someone put an end to all the myths.

Prior to 2006 one of the best methods of gaining links was to offer a reciprocated link in return. There was no problem with this until early 2006 when Google rolled-out an algorithm update called the ‘Big Daddy’ Update.

One of the byproducts of this update was that links from low quality sites stopped passing PageRank. Because some links were de-valued, pages that relied on these links dropped in the rankings. Other pages that were identified as linking to low quality sites (often referred to as ‘bad link neighborhoods’) were also penalised. This made some webmasters believe that all reciprocal links were bad. The thing we learn from this is that exchanging links is ok as long as you don’t reciprocate with the wrong sites.

Webmasters and SEOs started being more careful with who they reciprocated with and things were going well until a few months ago. Google’s webspam team dished-out penalties to some US-based real estate websites who were engaging in excessive reciprocal cross-linking. This once-again stirred rumours that reciprocal links are bad, but the real issue wasn’t strictly the exchanging of links, it was more to do with the excessive number of links reciprocated.

Even the most white-hat SEO techniques can appear dodgy if they aren’t done in moderation. Gaining links to your site is good, but if you were to gain thousands of inbound links within a 24 hour period due to a viral / buzz marketing campaign, red flags would go up and you may incur a Google penalty. Even though this has happened to a lot of sites you won’t find anyone saying that gaining links or doing viral / buzz marketing is bad.

So as you can see, reciprocating links isn’t a bad thing if done right and you don’t over-do it. Search Engine Land has a good article that contains some examples of when it is fine to reciprocate links and Adam Lasnik from Google posted a comment on another SEO blog where he says:

When read with the initial paragraph (right above the list mentioning reciprocal linking), it becomes pretty clear that we are NOT inherently against reciprocal links.

Hopefully this has cleared-up some myths about reciprocating links. Like all SEO techniques, if you use your brain, keep an eye on the industry forums / blogs and make sure you stick with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines you’ll be fine.

If you are ever unsure, feel free to shoot me an email any time.