What's Wrong with Reciprocal Linking? by Elliot Jarves

Plain and simple; a lot!

Reciprocal linking has been so abused by webmasters and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts (term used loosely when it comes to reciprocal linking) that the larger search engines have begun the process of disregarding reciprocal links as irrelevant.

Does that mean you will be penalized for having some? No, you won't be penalized (unless they lead to 'bad neighborhoods') but you will also not gain anything from having them either.

What has brought this downfall of reciprocal linking? Automation and spam sites but mostly automation. Automation allowed for membership sites to be created where trading can happen at the click of a button and your site is updated automatically with the new link page including the new link. Automation also allowed for finding link partners to send generic emails to in the hopes that they would take the bait and link back to you in return for your link to them.

Now, I like automation when done in a responsible and sensible way. But much of the reciprocal linking automation was about getting as many links as possible as fast as possible. Obviously, unless you are YouTube or MySpace, this is very unnatural and has been easy for the search engines to include in their algorithms.

Many webmasters threw all senses out the window in their quest for reciprocal links. They would go after anyone and everyone rather than finding related and quality partners to share links. Some even would say that they did it for the traffic, except that most of the sites that they traded links with didn't have any traffic and they were trading links to get higher search engine placement to get more traffic.

Another fatal flaw of reciprocal linking is the unscrupulous webmaster who buries your link on a page that will never be visited by a human visitor and probably not a search engine bot either. Most webmasters were not taking the time to actually see if the page their link was placed on could be found by the visitors to the parent site and therefore didn't get any search engine benefit or any natural traffic benefit. However, because you were a honest webmaster the link from your site did pass page rank and visitors to the other site and therefore the unscrupulous benefited greatly from laziness.

Now, most recently, there have been the 3-way reciprocal linking requests. This is still a reciprocal request and is still very easy for a search engine to identify. In fact, you would need to have hundreds if not thousands of web sites that you were rotating your 3rd site links through for 3-way linking to be difficult to detect. When webmasters explain it they make it sound like it is better than regular reciprocal linking but the reality is that it is more spammy than reciprocal linking because you are intentionally doing it to achieve better search engine placements.

So, my recommendation is to stay away from all reciprocal linking (at least in the traditional sense).

Well, what's left you may ask? The answer really goes back to more traditional marketing methods for creating traffic to a campaign. In the web world, our campaign is usually to gain more traffic and if we get higher search engine placement to get that traffic then it is a bonus.

All of the following, create long lasting 1-way backlinks that may come from highly respected authority sites and therefore carry more value in the search engine algorithms.

To start with, there is the tried and true method of submitting your site to 'hand-edited' web directories. Although not all of them are hand-edited a vast majority are. Which also means that the free web directories have a back log that may be a couple of days to a couple of months. Even still, it is worth submitting to as many directories as you can. Don't expect much traffic from this method but that's ok because we are really looking for the 1-way backlink.

Next, would be article submissions/marketing. Write individual articles or create a series of articles and submit them to the major article repositories. Article marketing doesn't usually have an immediate effect on traffic but will build links over time as a well written article will be republished on many sites, blogs, and newsletters.

I usually recommend directory submissions and article marketing take place first because they take the longest to actually gain momentum. But once they do it can be an incredible experience.

Next come the more time consuming but more immediate techniques. They are signature usage, site development, social bookmarking and context linking.

Signature usage is really simple. It is the task of commenting on blogs or forums that are related to your sites general topic. The benefit is a self-placed backlink to your own site. These links can usually even be to pages on the interior of your web site not just the home page. One of the best techniques to generate traffic from your signature is to offer link followers a discount or unique benefit just for following that link.

Site development is simply the process of making your site attractive and friendly to visitors. Sometimes this is called Visitor Experience Optimization (VEO). VEO becomes more and more important as your site gains more and more visitors. Your goal is to have a site that keeps a visitor there as long as possible. It will also increase the likely hood that anonymous webmasters will place links on their site to your site without a request from you - a 1-way link.

Social bookmarking is one of those things that webmasters may do that will make them feel funny and seem like they aren't doing the right thing. It's really OK as long as it is done without complete automation and without the intent to spam the bookmarking sites. What you are really trying to do is submit a vote for your own sites' pages (don't submit every single page of your site) into the bookmarking sites. Hopefully someone else will see your submission and agree with your vote and so on and so on. This technique will not work with every web site but it is worth at least submitting your pages to a group of bookmarking sites with some hope...

Finally, for those reciprocal request that you will undoubtedly continue to receive, contextual linking is what you want. Even if it is a reciprocal link between sites, if it is embedded within the normal context of the other webmasters web site it will be more trusted than a standard reciprocal link. Basically it will appear more natural to the user and to the search engine bots. Obviously for it to make sense, any reciprocal linking should only be done between sites that are related in some way and please don't make every incoming link appear the same. Change the text of the link and the context of the paragraph or page the link comes from so that it once again appears natural.

Of course, even if you do all of these things perfectly, there is no guarantee that you will be on the first page of any search engine result pages. But you will at least have a chance and will outrank a vast majority of the competition sites in the coming years.

Click Here: to see why directory submission IS the best way to go.
About the Author

After securing a computer science degree, Elliot decided to search the web for interesting and profitable ventures. Working on his current project at Profitsdomain.com

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Are You Missing Key Elements In Your Search Engine Optimization? by Earl Taylor

Web site search engine optimization refers to the spectrum of methods and tools used to push your website closer to the top of the search engine results page.

The biggest search engines, such as Yahoo and Google, utilize several different factors to create unique logarithms for searching the web.

The first step in web site search engine optimization is to develop a basic understanding of how search engines are currently working.

This is an ongoing process, as most search engines upgrade their methods and formulas on a regular basis.

One of the biggest components in integrating web site search engine optimization into your site is the placement of strategic keywords.

By building keywords and keyword phrases into the text of your web site, you increase the likelihood that search engines will find you.

The more keywords you have, and the more often you use them, the more likely you are to be at the top of the list.

It is a good idea to spend some time looking over your competitors sites. Play with the search engines and see what keyword phrases pull up their site and then work to utilize that phrase in your own.

Web site search engine optimization requires a fair amount of research. This keyword research will ensure that you end up with the same exposure as your competition.

You may also find it productive to make sure you have more pages on your site than your competition. The more pages you have, the more you can work in your keywords, and the search engines love big sites.
About the Author

Earl Taylor is an expert opportunist with 8 years experience as an internet marketer. He is the author of http://careerjobs.bizland.com. His diligent research and precise recommendations has been known to help thousands find profitable work at home jobs and home businesses. To learn more about web site search engine optimization. Visit: http://careerjobs.bizland.com/pbtraffic.html

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Only pick a fight you can win - the first rule of successful Web marketing by David Rosam

We're at least a decade into the Internet as a commercial medium. The top sites have been there for a long time, so if you're launching a site now, you have a lot of catching up to do.

Aren't a great site and brilliant products enough?

In a word, no. Consider the nature of the battlefield. Google is king of the Web - more than 70% of searches worldwide are on Google. And, in the B2B sphere, probably more.

Google actually prefers older, established sites - it even largely ignores new sites by 'sandboxing' them for 9 to 12 months. The big hitters have been there for 10 years or more, and they have thousands of mature links, many of them inevitably of good quality. They're the kind of sites that will be entrenched in the top positions on popular searches.

Now do you want to take them on? Do you have the budget, stamina and time? Or will you find a better way?

Only pick a fight you can win

To pick a fight you can win, you're going to have to operate smart. You're unlikely to want to take on Tesco (Wal-Mart, if you're reading in the US) by setting up a small general store next door, so why would you want to take on the Tescos of the online world in a similar kind of contest?

One of the areas we find people trying to pick the wrong fights is in financial services. From time to time we get an enquiry from someone who wants to rank on the first page of Google for 'home insurance', 'car insurance', 'pensions' and 'mortgages'.

There's next to no chance (within reasonable budget and patience boundaries) of getting them there because every bank and financial institution has been pouring loads of investment into marketing their sites online.

Many have been on the Web for years, and just as many of them have thousands and thousands of links. And, for regulated financial products, the poor financial services business will have government sites to contend with as well - Google loves government sites because they're the ultimate reference for so many matters.

Where's your niche?

You need to look at what makes you different. Particular product niches or geographical focus, perhaps? That's good basic marketing, not Internet marketing or SEO. Look at your products and services.

Let's go back to the mortgage example. Do you specialize in self-employed mortgages? Or do you have particular geographical focuses? 'mortgages in West Sussex' would be a much more realistic target than simply 'mortgages'.

Your Web site needs to reflect what your business, products and services are really about, not what you'd like to be about, or what you'd like to target. Be realistic. The tough targets can come next year, once you've started making some profit from your site.

Pinpointing your opponents' undefended side

So how can you find a niche where your competitor is weak? Think about the kinds of things you can do that your competitors don't or can't? If your business is already running, then the chances are, you already have figured out your niche offline. That's your starting point for marketing online.

Or look towards your business plan. A SWOT (strengths weaknesses opportunities threats) analysis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis) can be applied in the online environment just as well as off-line.

But commission some appropriate key phrase analysis, researching both traffic levels and link competition, and your opportunities should be laid out in front of you. By this, I mean higher traffic key phrases that are relevant to your business, and that you should be able secure a first-page listing for on Google because the tougher competitors have ignored those pieces of prime turf.

These niches are normally there if you look hard enough and in the right places.

Winning your fight

Once you've identified your niche, you can attack on two fronts - Organic SEO and PPC. For successful Organic SEO, you need to do three things:

1. Write the copy with an awareness of your customers' needs and the strengths of your products and services - to be as competitive as possible, your copy should be optimized on your researched key phrases
2. Build links - one-way, non-paid-for links, so don't go in for link exchanges, and beware of anyone who promises you thousands of links very quickly
3. Ensure your site is built to enable search engine spiders to read your copy - it's best to use CSS

For PPC you need to:

1. Run ads on one system only - unless you have a large amount of time to manage the campaigns (or the budget to employ an expert to do it for you), choose Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing or Microsoft adCentre. In the unlikely event you are profitably buying all the clicks you can and still have some budget, you should try the same profitable key phrases on another system as well
2. Start with the key phrases you have researched, then use the system's tools to research even more - and keep on researching as your campaign runs. With PPC, you'll almost certainly find yourself targeting more key phrases than with Organic SEO
3. Set a budget - and make sure you have set that maximum budget in the system to ensure you don't overspend
4. Set up Ad Groups and write copy - bear in mind you should try testing headline, content and landing page variations
5. Monitor, manage and test, test, test - keep a close eye on what's working and what's not; monitor bidding levels and CPCs (costs per click)
6. Work out your break-even point and be ruthless - if you can't make a key phrase profitable after a reasonable time, drop it. It's no use inflicting a hit on yourself through making a loss on PPC

Have patience and you'll win

Sandboxed or not, it'll take some months before you really start reaping the benefits of your Organic SEO. And although you can get immediate traffic from PPC, it's unlikely that you'll hit the jackpot right away. Have realistic expectations and make a sustained attack on your competitors' weakest points and you'll have won the online fight.
About the Author

David Rosam is Head of SEO Copywriting at Web Positioning Centre (http://webpositioningcentre.co.uk/search-engine-optimisation.php), and specialises in Internet marketing strategy and optimised copywriting. His blog is Dangerous Thinking (http://dangerous-thinking.com) which covers SEO Copywriting, Ethical SEO and Marketing.

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