Is a reciprocal link the same value as a non-reciprocal
-
So I just started a few weeks ago doing some linkbuilding for my photography site at http://danielvaladas.com
I started by adding my site to some of the business directories recommended by SeoMoz + some local and specialized directories I found myself and from my competitors.
I also sponsored a local charity in exchange for a link on their PR3 website and I wanted to blog on my site about this sponsorship. I am wondering if it is better to link back to them or not. Is this one way link of more value if I don't link back to them?
-
Very informative, thanks for those two links
-
These are really good! Thanks for sharing.
I guess the key here is not to make it excessive if you do it.
-
Couple of good posts from Rand Fishkin:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-myths-that-scare-seos-but-shouldnt-whiteboard-friday
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-sitewide-reciprocal-and-directory-links
Most of the time reciprocal links are fine, as far as we know. It's when Google detects a pattern of reciprocal linking that looks unnatural. These include link wheels and 3 way linking schemes and plans so complicated I couldn't even begin to describe them.
In your case, you should be fine.
-
Actually, I don't know where I got that PR3. The home page is PR4 and I have links from two of their PR2 pages.
I like the idea of doing some link building with sponsorships because I also like the "side effects" such as showcasing my work and products and having my logo on the products, their annual reports, etc.
I do understand that the link schemes guidelines are just guidelines and that I won't get automatically banned from having a link from a charity or a paid directory as long as I also have other natural links. However, I was just wondering if I sould link back to them or not. So I guess I'll not make the link reciprocal.
Thanks for your advice.
-
That's "technically" true but you there is no way Google will consider it that way. They generally penalize people for who use a site that primarily does this for revenue. I doubt your nonprofit will ever get penalized for this. Just don't make the link reciprocal and you'll be fine. Also, I wouldn't make this a normal practice. Every now and again is okay especially for a cause you believe in. I don't think there is anything in Google's algo that will penalize you for this. I get nonprofit links all the time when I used to give speeches. I never got penalized for it.
-
Well, if I go by these guidelines, I am already doing a link scheme just by asking a link for my sponsrship:
"exchanging goods or services for links; or sending someone a “free” product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link"
As far as diverse link profile, opensiteexplorer is a bit late on my recent work, but I estimate I have links from about 20 domains. Maybe about 80% directories and professionnal local associations and the other 20% natural links. And as far as I can think, only 2 of these 20 links are reciprocal.
-
I'm not a fan of reciprocal links. Having a link profile that is diverse is the key. Here is how I would do it.
You mentioned that their site is a pr3 but I will assume that their home page is the pr3. I would have them link to your home page and then write an article on your blog (assuming you have one) and on that page link back to their "donate" page for "more information on how to donate to the charity".
Google actually has more information on LInk Schemes on Webmaster Tools. Take a look there and it should answer a few of your questions too. Here's the link:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66356
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Outgoing links
Hi Guy's, We have a website with no outgoing links (only Facebook). Is this a good way to score better in the SERPS? Or is it better to have some outgoing "relevant" links for a natural linkjuice? Thanks!
Link Building | | Happy-SEO1 -
Subdomain links vs root domain links? Are the less valuable?
I am determining the value of links we get. Is a link on a subdomain less valuable vs one on the root domain? How less valuable would you consider a subdomain link? For example blog.site.com vs site.com/blog What other metrics would you take into consideration for the value of a subdomain link?
Link Building | | calf0 -
Is there value of consistently getting a link from a high DA site?
Is there value in consistently getting a link from a high DA sites? For example, consistently posting on a blog monthly rather then only doing it once and getting a link/being done with it. Could you list the pros of consistently getting links on high DA sites?
Link Building | | calf0 -
Many high value links to printer-friendly versions of our pages
First, forgive me if I miss something obvious. I'm a user experience designer who handles all SEO efforts for our organization in my spare time. This question is about our patient / health education website, http://familydoctor.org NIH's Medline Plus ( http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ ) has linked to http://familydoctor.org for a very, very long time, before we had advertisements on the site. To get an idea of where Medline Plus links to familydoctor.org, visit http://goo.gl/1yaofC or use the following query in Google.com: site:www.nlm.nih.gov inurl:medlineplus American Academy of Family Physicians After we redesigned and started putting ads on FD.org, I think these two things happened simultaneously, we received a contact from someone at NIH stating they could no longer link to our site because of the ads. NIH is a highly-trusted and ranked domain, so we agreed to let them link to the printer-friendly versions of our content to avoid the ads. A few years later, we restructured the content. For an article about depression, instead of having one page with all of the content ( http://web.archive.org/web/20090215071258/http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/common/mentalhealth/depression/046.html ), we broke it up into many shorter pages ( http://familydoctor.org/familydoctor/en/diseases-conditions/depression.html ), such as Overview, Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, etc. I don't know if NIH crossed anyone's mind until go-live day, when we noticed a high number of referrals to the error page coming from NIH.gov. We wanted to fix this quickly, so Medline didn't stop linking to us and Google didn't de-value the relationship because of the broken links. We redirected all of the printer-friendly links from the previous site to the printer-friendly whole article (lets you see all the information on one page) on the new site. We did this because there is no way to move between now split up content pages in the split up printer-friendly versions of the site. Even if there was, we didn't think NIH would take too kindly to this. There is a return to the web link on the printer-friendly whole article page. This is a followed link and I realize the anchor text could be improved. We added the following on printer-friendly pages in an effort to not get penalized by search engines for duplicate content. Are we doing all we can to take advantage of these high-value links? Is the meta robots tag necessary, helpful, or not?
Link Building | | aafpitadmin0 -
What link would be better?
Okay, I found a niche blog that has a google PR6. They have a ton of dollow blogroll links, as well as a ton of internal links on homepage. Would I be better off getting the blogroll link? Getting a link in an existing post with a lower PR? Getting an advertiorial written with a link in it? I just don't know. It has a domain authority of 33 currently. It's not a cheap link for blogroll. The in-post, or advertorial isn't too bad, but not cheap either. Thanks in advance.
Link Building | | azguy0 -
External link
Hi guys! You must get many questions about external links... This is mine. If I get an external link with good authority ranking in google, but it is not relevant to the site (for example, my site is about marquees, but we could get links from schools, which are our main clients, or any type of client) Does that affect negatively somehow to the rankings? or there is good value on it even is not related? Thanks! Adriana
Link Building | | extrememarquees0 -
Reciprocal Link Advice
My client site has a good one-way link from an authority site (in this case a member directory within the industry association). In order to use some data from the industry association on my client's site, the association has requested a link back to their site. Recognising that this will weaken the value of the one-way link, would it be make sense to no-follow the return link? But is there value in linking out to an authority site? What recommendations do you have for this situation? Thanks
Link Building | | bjalc20110 -
Article Links
I write and publish artcles. Typically I publish them on a few top article sites like EZineArticles. The articles then get picked up by other sites, often numbering in the hundreds. All of the articles are published with a link back to our website using a keyword. Are there any SEO risks in this type of link proliferation?
Link Building | | JimSkychief0