subject: Is Reciprocal Linking Dead? [print this page] If you have been reading some of the internet forums, the last Google update certainly caused quite a stir, and it has left a lot of people asking the question "Is reciprocal linking Dead?".
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This latest Google update affected a lot of websites that depended on their reciprocal linking strategy to rank high in Google.
If a webmaster wanted to outrank a competing site, They would work out how many links they needed from different websites with a certain PR rating and then commence a reciprocal linking campaign to out rank their competitors.
This strategy was certainly sound and was very effective. But most webmasters would swap links with anybody and everybody, so long as the site had a Google page rank (the higher the better).
Each link swapped was a step toward ranking higher in the search engines and beating out their competitors.
This strategy may have worked in the past when Google was not as smart, but it appears Google has wised up to this strategy. So, it is not surprising that as Google and the other search engines get more sophisticated that the effectiveness of reciprocal linking has diminished as an important factor for ranking well in seach engines.
Which brings us back to the question "Is reciprocal linking dead?"
Instead of asking yourself if reciprocal linking is dead, you should really ask yourself what outcome do you want to achieve with your reciprocal linking strategy.
If reciprocal linking is your only strategy to rank high in the search engines, then you should re-think your strategy because reciprocal linking is not quite dead, but it has taken a big hit.
I have not stopped my reciprocal linking strategies because I am aiming for the following outcomes:
1. To drive traffic to my site from other relevant websites.
2. To add value to my visitors by offering them links to websites that they may be interested in.
3. If I rank higher in the search engines, then this is a bonus.
Before swapping a link with another site I am always mindful that if a visitor sees a link on my site, they correctly assume that I have recommended this website to them, and, if the site I send them to is not relevant or very good, then I loose credibility and a possible return visitor.
Whenever I am going to swap links with another site I always ask myself the following questions:
