subject: Life Without Reciprocal Link [print this page] After the latest google update codenamed Jagger, reciprocal link has less relevancy than ever before. Many have abused this system before and there are even sites that thrived by offering link exchange programs.
Reciprocal linking occuring naturally is not wrong in any way. But, many that reciprocate take advantage of the fact that a site A will not be penalized for giving out links to another site B. Meanwhile, B has a higher link popularity due to the vote from A. So hey, why not reciprocate and increase the ranks for both sites? Doing so excessively results in both participants having a higher web rank despite not contributing anything to the overall internet community.
Now, Google values reciprocal link less. Specifically, if a site A points to site B that Google considers offensive, site A will be penalized. Therefore, each site now has to be careful on whom it gives its endorsement to.
Do not worry. With reciprocal link on its way out (slowly), we have no choice but to give the best information available to the web community. Here are several ways to increase your site rankings:
1. Create content.
The purpose of search engine is to help people find the information that they need. In the business world, successful companies always give what their customers want. Therefore, create content that your potential customers want and they will be grateful for that.
Give away your content and you shall receive more visitors. This idea is a basic marketing principle. This is like giving away samples of new products at a fair or at an exhibition. Your job is to let people know about your products and/or services. The more people try it out, the higher chance of them becoming your regular customers. It works similar in the search engine world. If you charge exobirant amount of dollars for service that nobody knows, who would come and try out your products?
3. List your website to good web directory.
Ok, submitting your sites to good web directories will require your site to be a high PR site or it costs money. Either way, this is not an efficient marketing campaign. Why would you want to link to web directories if you already have a decent PR rank? You will be better off concentrating on your existing visitors rather than acquiring new visitors. Therefore, linking to good web directories are for a new less-visited site. However, good web directories normally do not want to link to small unproven website. Why? As stated before, if site A links to a bad site B, then A is considered a supporter of B, which means that Google may penalize site A for linking to B.
