A Must Read for Reciprocal Linking

[SemperFidelis]

A couple of great recent articles on reciprocal linking.

This one discusses the quality of reciprocal linking and it's effects:

http://www.seobook.com/archives/001941.shtml

In this article Google discusses, and I quote from the article: "...the meritocratic and long-term option of developing natural links or the risky and short-term option of non-earned backlinks via link spamming tactics..."

See post #2 for the link...

Be careful about how you generate your inbound links...Big Brother is watching! :eek:

[SemperFidelis]

Here it is from Google Webmaster...

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2006/12/building-link-based-popularity.html

[Chief Tutor]

I had read the recent post on the Google webmaster blog and have been saying this to clients for the last few years.

Organic rankings are a long term marketing plan. To put it in real estate terms, organic rankings are like a farm......."your internet farm". It doesn't happen over night but if you work it consistently and correctly, it will pay off in the long run.

[SemperFidelis]

This about sums up what I've been reading lately in the various forums about the direction linking is headed:

Natural links:
- links within content
- non sitewide links
- a few links (1-3) on interior pages
- links with relevant content around them

Non natural:
- 5+ links stacked on top of each other, no content in between
- links placed on High PR pages on unrelated content
- using the exact same anchor text on most or all of your links
- links placed right under the words "advertising," "sponsored" etc.

It'll be difficult, but you're right Chief, the dividends will pay off in the long run. :)

[SemperFidelis]

I've even read in a few places that Google is getting wise to forum signature links! :eek:

[HHI Golf Guy]

TrustRank has been becoming an increasingly important factor with Google over the past 18 months. Even before this came in to play, I have always been extremely careful with my link partner relationships. It's also why my clients enjoy top 10 Google SERP's when I have only half of the iBL's of my competitors :)

The article was a good piece, and Todd knows his stuff. I do, however, disagree about his mention of link pages in the supplemental index. Even though that page may be supplemental, Google knows about it and has crawled the page and outbound links. Granted, that link may not have the same value as a non-supp page, but Google knows about the link nonetheless.

Another area not explored in this article is social networking sites. Don't underestimate the value of these pages, even from MySpace.com. We're in the process of rolling out of 200 real estate/vacation rental/city info sites around the U.S. and will be utilizing many social networking sites, especially multimedia site like YouTube.

If you have read any of my posts on this (or other forums) before, you know that for the last 12-18 months I have been pushing for a major change in real estate link building relationships including article exchanges, mini-article exchanges, RSS feed exchanges, and moving all recip links to sub domains. The stumbling block is that all of the little lemmings ;) out there embark on SEO campaigns based upon what has worked in the past, not where the search engines go in the future.

When Google began incorporating IBL's in its SERP calculations it opened the doors for link bombers to get to the top of the SERP's. The only natural course for Google to take is to find a better way to evaluate the credibility of each link.

How do they do that? First, it's easy for Google to determine a traditional link page from a content based web page. Second, at SES last year Google demonstrated how easy it was for them to determine recip links, three-way links, one-way links, and paid links for any given site.

So, what's the average web site owner to do? One-way links are an option, but can be hard to find. The easiest method is to do some content based link exchanges. To some, that means uploading a few articles to those article submission sites. In the real estate business, that usually means the agent writes a generic article on real estate and hopes that someone picks it up and posts it on their web site.

Unfortunately, that rarely works well. First, it's not likely your article will be picked up. Second, the content of the generic real estate article does nothing to support the theme of your link and your own web site - "your city + real estate". And even if you write an article about "your city + real estate", who's going to post it? Your competitors?

What you can do is exchange articles with other quality sites. Forget about pages indexed or PageRank. You want to exchange articles with other content driven web sites. That doesn't mean that the other site needs to have 5,000 pages (most of which are junk anyway). What it does mean is that the pages that they do have are based on actual reader content, not machine made pages of every MLS listing over the past 3 years. FWIW, most of my client sites are only 50-100 pages - but 99% of them are content that supports the main KW themes of the site. And no, an MLS listing does not support the main theme of the site - you have little control over the content of that page.

When you exchange articles, there should be at least 3 decent sized paragraphs, and a maximum of 2 links. Each link should point to a different page, and each should have unique anchor text. Then combine 2-3 articles on a page, each from the same state. When you get enough articles from each state, start breaking them down by city/region. Use appropriate and unique title tags, META tags, and heading tags on each page.

Our SEO philosphy is that each page of the web site must support the main KW themes. So, if I start exchanging articles with all kinds of cities and states, there is no doubt it will dilute the main theme of my web site and make it tougher to optimize. That's why we have moved all of these pages to sub domains, and provide only one link to this sub domain from the home page. Once again, I don't want to dilute the "Trust" of my site by having multiple links to the sub domain.

In addition, these sub domain pages also include RSS feeds from REJ, RSS exchange partners, and sometimes local newspapers on each city/state page.

Once again, the idea is to build content driven pages that support the theme of the outbound links and the sites receiving those links. Done properly, you create a CONTENT DRIVEN national real estate information portal on a sub domain of yor web site. Those are the links that will help your web site - reciprocal links or not.

[sarahk]

You can't go past this gem:Our general advice is: Always focus on the users and not on search engines when developing your optimization strategy. Ask yourself what creates value for your users. Investing in the quality of your content and thereby earning natural backlinks benefits both the users and drives more qualified traffic to your site.The problem comes when your target market isn't websavvy and while they may find you, use you, recommend you they're not online and can't link to you - naturally or otherwise.

[ColoradoHomeHelper]

TrustRank has been becoming an increasingly important factor with Google over the past 18 months. Even before this came in to play, I have always been extremely careful with my link partner relationships. It's also why my clients enjoy top 10 Google SERP's when I have only half of the iBL's of my competitors :)

The article was a good piece, and Todd knows his stuff. I do, however, disagree about his mention of link pages in the supplemental index. Even though that page may be supplemental, Google knows about it and has crawled the page and outbound links. Granted, that link may not have the same value as a non-supp page, but Google knows about the link nonetheless.

Another area not explored in this article is social networking sites. Don't underestimate the value of these pages, even from MySpace.com. We're in the process of rolling out of 200 real estate/vacation rental/city info sites around the U.S. and will be utilizing many social networking sites, especially multimedia site like YouTube.

If you have read any of my posts on this (or other forums) before, you know that for the last 12-18 months I have been pushing for a major change in real estate link building relationships including article exchanges, mini-article exchanges, RSS feed exchanges, and moving all recip links to sub domains. The stumbling block is that all of the little lemmings ;) out there embark on SEO campaigns based upon what has worked in the past, not where the search engines go in the future.

When Google began incorporating IBL's in its SERP calculations it opened the doors for link bombers to get to the top of the SERP's. The only natural course for Google to take is to find a better way to evaluate the credibility of each link.

How do they do that? First, it's easy for Google to determine a traditional link page from a content based web page. Second, at SES last year Google demonstrated how easy it was for them to determine recip links, three-way links, one-way links, and paid links for any given site.

So, what's the average web site owner to do? One-way links are an option, but can be hard to find. The easiest method is to do some content based link exchanges. To some, that means uploading a few articles to those article submission sites. In the real estate business, that usually means the agent writes a generic article on real estate and hopes that someone picks it up and posts it on their web site.

Unfortunately, that rarely works well. First, it's not likely your article will be picked up. Second, the content of the generic real estate article does nothing to support the theme of your link and your own web site - "your city + real estate". And even if you write an article about "your city + real estate", who's going to post it? Your competitors?

What you can do is exchange articles with other quality sites. Forget about pages indexed or PageRank. You want to exchange articles with other content driven web sites. That doesn't mean that the other site needs to have 5,000 pages (most of which are junk anyway). What it does mean is that the pages that they do have are based on actual reader content, not machine made pages of every MLS listing over the past 3 years. FWIW, most of my client sites are only 50-100 pages - but 99% of them are content that supports the main KW themes of the site. And no, an MLS listing does not support the main theme of the site - you have little control over the content of that page.

When you exchange articles, there should be at least 3 decent sized paragraphs, and a maximum of 2 links. Each link should point to a different page, and each should have unique anchor text. Then combine 2-3 articles on a page, each from the same state. When you get enough articles from each state, start breaking them down by city/region. Use appropriate and unique title tags, META tags, and heading tags on each page.

Our SEO philosphy is that each page of the web site must support the main KW themes. So, if I start exchanging articles with all kinds of cities and states, there is no doubt it will dilute the main theme of my web site and make it tougher to optimize. That's why we have moved all of these pages to sub domains, and provide only one link to this sub domain from the home page. Once again, I don't want to dilute the "Trust" of my site by having multiple links to the sub domain.

In addition, these sub domain pages also include RSS feeds from REJ, RSS exchange partners, and sometimes local newspapers on each city/state page.

Once again, the idea is to build content driven pages that support the theme of the outbound links and the sites receiving those links. Done properly, you create a CONTENT DRIVEN national real estate information portal on a sub domain of yor web site. Those are the links that will help your web site - reciprocal links or not.

Very informative...great post!