SEO Tycoon

**MatrixIT** · 07-22-2008, 12:14 PM

hi, well its pretty much there in the title, I've had a lot of conflicting views on directories that offer reciprocal links. Some say reciprocal links are evil and punishable by death (aka getting banned from google

), others say its ok if its a directory, others say its just plain ok.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

**juliensimon** · 07-22-2008, 12:57 PM

I've heard a lot of different views as well.
As for me, I believe that it is acceptable to do links exchange as long as it is relevant for the user. Link exchange as a purely "yeahhh, one more link pointing to my site" will probably be punished by Google.

http://www.google.com/support/webmas...l&topic=&type=

Now remember to think about your website with ALWAYS the user view in mind. Don't you think a website looks spamy if it contains hundreds or thousands of links towards a non related website? It may not only hurt your ranking, but also your "likeness level" on the user side.

The bottom line is: make a website for the user first - worry about SEO after. What's the point driving traffic to a website stuffed with keywords and links that will drive customer away.
yes, a 90% bounce rate is high

**vangogh** · 07-22-2008, 07:55 PM

Outside of some extreme circumstances it's unlikely you're going to get banned. What's more likely to happen is a search engine will realize the links are there solely to manipulate ranking and they simply won't count the links.

You're not being penalized, but you're wasting your time.

A good directory is one that finds quality content and reviews sites before accepting them. Directories that link to you only because you link back to them aren't attempting to build a quality directory. That's pretty easy for a search engine to see.

**summer14** · 07-22-2008, 08:44 PM

I think its a good idea on submitting to reciprocall directories because of the benefit of fast approval.

**mokmok69** · 07-22-2008, 11:00 PM

Well, Reciprocal directories is good if you want to have fast approval and it will to improve your backlinks.

**david_john** · 07-23-2008, 02:46 AM

Reciprocal directories wont help you much. Having the directory link in your site wont help your visitors though. Better try getting one way links than reciprocal.

**hem** · 07-23-2008, 03:31 AM

The link exchange is useless these days and it is also risky. People discussed here different view then why take risk.

**johnlloyd** · 07-23-2008, 07:35 AM

i think that reciprocal link directories are quite unhelpful, it is not highly appreciated that's why it such a waste of time to submit your site to it!

**2fk** · 07-23-2008, 09:05 AM

Reciprocal exchange with directories wont be that helpful..due to it is categorized..your are putting link that is out of your niche..better go for link exchange with same niche and oneway link in other free directories there are bunch of directories that approves the submission though it may take time...only require a little patience

**vangogh** · 07-23-2008, 06:59 PM

Since some people here think quick approval is a benefit I want to help you all out. Send me $100 and I'll quickly approve the transfer to my bank account.

Seriously how does quick approval benefit you if you're being quickly approved for something worthless. Being approved quickly is only a benefit if the thing you're being approved for is also a benefit.

**Learning Newbie** · 07-23-2008, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MatrixIT

reciprocal links are evil and punishable by death (aka getting banned from google

)

Even worse, they're punished by having wasted your time while your competitors were doing something useful with their time, and passing you in the SERPs.

**northbeach23** · 07-24-2008, 03:32 AM

One way link exchange is much better than two way.

**pauljustice** · 07-24-2008, 05:30 AM

Reciprocal linking are used to get fast approval but if your compare it with one way link building like directory submission, one way link building is better option. search engine alson like one way link building.

**mald** · 07-24-2008, 09:25 AM

I'm more of the opinion that one quality inbound link is going to have much more value than several directory links that don't offer anyone (including search engines) the impression that any care has gone into setting up that link. Surely one of the main purposes of an inbound link is so that a human can follow it and increase your traffic... call me old fashioned....!

**farishussain** · 07-25-2008, 10:02 PM

I use Reciprocal and One Way.

reciprocal approves me and one way dont

**bobbybux** · 07-27-2008, 10:07 AM

hehe, I am confusing which is best

**psylocke** · 07-28-2008, 03:06 AM

reciprocal link with directories is useless, so its better to submit your site w/out exchanging links.. a lot of directories allows one way link.

**blogdog** · 07-28-2008, 09:38 PM

Plus, I think having a bunch of lame recip links doesn't help your SEO, here's why:

1.) It doesn't help your users. They're at your site for the subject matter of your site, not to click on links going off to sites that are absolutely and totally unrelated to your site.

2.) The reverse applies for the traffic from the recip. Besides, the recip link will be buried so deep, no normal human will ever find it, and you don't want the abnormal ones coming to your sight anyway. Unless your site is about abnormal humans, then it might work.

3.) It looks like doodie to have 5,000 random outbound links stuffed on a page(s).

But that's just a theory I have. Don't know if it's true. Can someone confirm or deny this?

**SEOFocused** · 07-28-2008, 11:34 PM

there are over thousand if not thousands of free directories that doesn't require any recip links. why you would submit to the onces that require recip links? its time consuming to do recip links and sometimes you will see the links on the other sites not staying there after a while. also, some sites you exchange links with will cease to exisit at some point but you will still have their links on your site. its not fun to manage recip links at all. just find free directories and submit to them

**globalcelebrity** · 07-29-2008, 03:04 AM

agree that people have different views about link exchange, other says link exchange is bad and some people says this is good..AFAIK reciprocal link is not bad as long as your LE partner is related to your site..and in fact this will give benefit to your site...