Paid And Reciprocal Links – Should I Bother?
November 7th, 2008 by Dan
SEO tends to include a number of hurdle that website owners need to overcome in order to see their own pages rank highly in the search results. One such obstacle is finding genuinely useful methods of building links to web pages on a consistent basis. Links need to be from relevant pages and include relevant keywords within the anchor text of the code and it is this combination that makes it difficult source links on an ongoing basis. For these reasons, a lot of people try methods such as paid links or reciprocal links in order to generate SEO links.
Reciprocal Links
Reciprocal links were once the preferred technique of many an SEO. Two web pages would link to one another and both would be rewarded in the eyes of the search engines because they have themselves an inbound link. However, it was soon realised that this devalued the use of links in identifying good quality websites because reciprocal links were not rewarded on the basis of the quality of a website but on the willingness simply to offer a link back.
The Practice Still Exists
Even though search engines have greatly devalued the benefit of reciprocal links many websites and reciprocal link programs still exist and still have a lot of partners. While it is conceivable that a little weight is offered to good quality reciprocal links, more than likely determine on where the links are placed and other factors such as how many outbound links appear on the page, your link building efforts may be better spent looking for organic methods of building links.
Paid Links
Paid links were also very popular for a time, but Google particularly has stated that if it identifies a link as having been paid for then that link will not get the value it would have if it had been offered freely. Just how much attention Google and the other search engines pay to finding paid links is unclear but it’s reasonable to assume that the ever vigilant purveyors of quality content will take at least some step to try and identify paid links in a bid to cleanse their index.
SEO Link Building
The search engines attempt to diminish the value of link building practices that award links based on factors other than the provision of high quality content. This has led to reciprocal links and paid links being considered worth a lot less than they once were and when compared to the links had they been generated using organic methods. That doesn’t mean that these methods do not provide some value, however.
So Should You?
Paid and reciprocal links should not be considered a form of SEO link building but each link considered on its own merit. If it will generate its own surf through traffic and the exchange or price is reasonable then it is certainly worth considering. The search engines only devalue the links and will not penalise a site for attempting to build links to their website using either of these methods.
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For search engine optimization of sites link building and reciprocal are organic category and search engine friendly but in the reciprocal link can make them less effective due to no inbound linking to the web sites page.
I will not suggest opting for the paid link building because there is no surety of quality traffic to sites and can compel your program to stop further due to limitation of budget but in this regard, SEO services can meet all purposes for internet marketing of site.
Yes, links are part of Google’s patent disclosure and do you think that it will go away as a major contributing factor? PageRank (which I hate as a measurement tool) is what separated Google apart form their competitors. Remember this…
Another way to find likes is to utilize a safe service with a protected footprint so Google and other search engines won’t see that you are buying text links. I also suggest that you stay away from HomePage PR pages, and go more with contextual (in the content links) advertising. A handful of content text links with lower level PR and relevant content is a great link, and probably costs little. In fact, I wont not pay more than $100/year for a half-way good decent contextual link. If your interested, try out LinkXL.com – you can find these types of links here.
is there any link building techniques?
[...] is being used is to swap links. This is done so that two companies with a common interest may have reciprocal links as a way of making sure that they benefit from the synergies which come with such an [...]
With Google’s announcement that they will no longer report Page Rankings, the Importance of Back links will only increase.
Reciprocal links unless they are relevant will have nil or very little gain so mostly not worth the effort.
Google is already looking at ways to reduce the importance of paid links.,so paying for links could not only be very expensive but also a futile exercise.
My advice is only link to Sites which are relevant and of interest to you and perhaps if you have a good enough Blog or Website, web masters will link to you