Reciprocal Links: Dead, Alive or Missing?

While this blog title this may read more like a wanted poster or an expose on the whereabouts of the elusive Yeti/ Bigfoot, the fact remains that there are many schools of thought on the issue of reciprocal links and their effectiveness in building website popularity and traffic. According to an article written by Edwin Hayward, most experts agree that 97% of all websites need more links to increase their ratings on the major search engines. The major underlying issue, however, concerns SEO companies stressing reciprocal links as the main way to reach their goal.

The process of exchanging reciprocal links, (a text and/or banner link to a site that carries a similar text/banner to your own site) involves both trust and commitment. Links should be evaluated and accepted on the basis of their relevancy to the needs of the site’s visitors rather than those of the mother website to merely foster the popularity of the site by increasing the number of links it carries.
Indiscriminate linking is not a quick fix for a site that does not attract visitors. Bear in mind the word focus and relevancy when evaluating the reciprocal link requests that will come to you if your site is interesting and well done. The key to determining whether or not a reciprocal link is an asset or a defect is to consider how it might affect the interest level of the reader/visitor. Will it keep them with you or will it divert their attention so far away that they will never come back?

Remember that the “missing link” should be reserved for those cryptologists in search of the world’s unknown species, and while the mighty yeti might be lurking somewhere on a cold Tibetan mountaintop or in the vast forests of the American Northwest, missing reciprocal links lay in your own backyard, waiting to be discovered, properly evaluated and nurtured.