Successful Reciprocal Linking Strategy

by Dirk Johnson, Partner - Operations, DomainDrivers LLC

Since 1997, I have been fortunate to see the advantages that reciprocal linking can bring to a website. I've worked with hundreds of sites, and that experience has provided us at DomainDrivers with a unique, hands-on look at what has been successful. We avoid chasing "theories", and instead, we look at what has worked, and continues to work, and we advise our clients accordingly. Here's what we've seen...

A quick summary of this article:

• Link with as many relevant sites as possible.
• Avoid search engine optimization (SEO) games.
• Start now, do it continuously.

A Bit of History

Back in 1996, Google did not exist, and the other search engines did not use links as a factor in their algorithm. People linked with other relevant sites because it was a genuine, grassroots way to build awareness and traffic for a website, and it worked very well.

Of course, that has changed, as Google, and now the other search engines, all consider links in their ranking algorithms. Because of this, (and the emergence of the Google Toolbar with it's PageRank (PR) value), the public perception of the scope of this work has changed. Many people consider linking to be a "game", with complex strategies that attempt to influence the search engines in their favor.

However, our most successful clients, over many years, have pursued links as if Google did not exist. They continue to use the traditional, pre-Google approach to this work. That is, they link with as many relevant sites as possible, thus building a large link foundation, with as many unique and relevant domains as possible.

This is what Google originally rewarded, and appears to reward, to this day.

Gaming the Search Engines?

While it is popular among some in the SEO world to devise complex formulas about who to link with and who not (often based on PR and other factors), we do not see this approach working well in competitive environments. That is, a site with a handful of carefully placed links does not displace a site with a large foundation of genuine links. Despite the huge popularity of these contrived methods, we have yet to see a single, documented example of this working against a well-entrenched competitor.

(For clients who wish to use PageRank or other criteria in their reciprocal linking strategy, please review our PR Policy page for more information on how we can accommodate your needs.)

Establishing a large foundation of relevant links is something that takes time, and commitment. The time to start is now, and it should continue indefinitely. The goal is to achieve parity with competitors, while putting distance between your own site and that of less-determined competitors.

Certainly, it takes a certain faith to do this. This is a long-term process, and there are no guarantees that specific search results will derive from it. Search results depend on a number of other factors, such as your optimization efforts, content depth, and the competitive environment of the keywords that matter to your business.

(For a discussion of optimization and content development, please see our SEO Basics page.)

Nevertheless, optimization and content without a solid, growing foundation of links is generally not an effective approach.

This is Not a Static World

This discussion would not be complete if we did not explain that we do not live in a static world. Doing nothing, or doing this work in a way that is contrived and abbreviated, solely as an effort to "game" the search engines, leaves the door wide open to competitors who are not so constrained.

These unconstrained competitors will eventually and doggedly pursue all relevant links, and they may well establish an advantage that can be very hard to overcome. Links that are available today may not be available at a later date, as some sites become dormant. This makes "catching up" that much harder.

From our experience, it's very basic, really. The World Wide Web is a new and unique medium. It is a computer network, based entirely on links between pages. The more links you have, the more opportunities you have for people to visit your website. Links are literally, the currency of the World Wide Web. Now that the search engines use this as part of their algorithms, links are vital.

All of this comes down to choices. As it stands right now, those who make no effort to link their sites in some way will only continue to fall further behind their competitors in free search results. Those who approach this work as a "game", with contrived formulas that actually limit their potential link popularity, may be enjoying some current success, but are also vulnerable to less constrained competitors.

Why Reciprocal Links?

There are a number of ways to earn links to a website. Each of them has a cost, a time frame to placement, a stability factor (how long will it last?), an accessibility factor (how readily available is it?) , and a relevance to your site. Links are not free.

Here at DomainDrivers, we manage directory-to-directory reciprocal linking. That is, we build a directory for your site, and get you listed in other private, independent directories that exist in your realm of interest

It is the most cost effective, timely, continuous, relevant, and historically stable method of earning links.

Our most successful clients have pursued this work continuously, over several years, without any efforts to "game" the search engines. They have established a competitive advantage, then build upon it, and combined it with other optimization and content-building efforts.

In our experience, this is the most effective approach to this work.

Thanks..

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For clients who wish to use PageRank or other criteria in their reciprocal linking strategy, please review our PR Policy page for more information on how we can accommodate your needs.

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For a discussion of optimization and content development, please see our SEO Basics page.