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If you're an authority in your industry and share new data or strategies as a guest on another industry-related, high-quality, well-trafficked blog, the link in your author byline at the end will always count for a lot. You've earned a vote because you're an authority in your industry. The visits and social signals of people commenting on that post, sharing it etc., will indicate that to Google.

On the other side, if, like Geoff Jackson said, you're throwing together 500 words of rubbish to get posted on a spammy, low-readership blog, just for some exact match anchor text that you've used in links 100 times before, Google will discount that link's value, and might even penalize your site.

I guess my point is - excellent guest blog posting is still very white-hat, and always will be. As industry authority figures share their knowledge around the web on high authority blogs, the links back to their own content are great votes that they've earned.

I interpret what you're saying in your question to mean all guest blogging is bad and Google will eventually throw it all out. However, just as with anchor text, if it's done well then it still counts for something. Guest posting is still a great idea if you're a great guest posting helpful content.

Even though the intention might be better, the Google Algorithm doesn't take into account intention. If it sees two pages linking to each other, it will flag it as reciprocal and reduce at least some of the value of each link, if not all. I'd recommend asking for a straight one-way link. Maybe offer your vendors a badge to put on their site as a sign of pride in your working relationship. The badge could then link to you, and both of you benefit without a link exchange...

FIrst queston - "this is a list of pages that presumably link to the URL I entered" - yes those are pages linking to your URL.

Second, if you visit one of the listed linking URL's and can't find the link, that just means the link may have been taken down. There is some delay between live data and what OpenSIteExplorer shows. The other reason might be that the page links to a URL that redirects to the URL you're researching.

Hope this helps!

Hey Ken, if I remember correctly, it took a few weeks to get updates flowing weekly in my crawl reports. The first major crawl of a site takes a while to cover all the bases. I think that's why they give you that initial quick crawl. But after those few weeks of their crawler getting used to the site I saw updates weekly tracking changes I'd been making. The SEOmoz toolset is well worth the monthly fee based on my experience.

Exactly! Industry reciprocals are bound to happen. Why wouldn't you and your partners point links at each other?

It becomes a penalizable (new word?) problem when you over-do it or work it as a "strategy." Which worries me for you, Samuel, as you word the final question:

"Should I be adopting reciprocal links and banner exchanges. I know these strategies worked years ago but surely not in 2012?"

My answer would be, "No." You shouldn't be adopting a reciprocal link & banner exchange strategy. You should build a product or service that earns links and banners. And on your own site, you should feature businesses and websites that you respect and/or work with in your own banners and links. Point customers towards resources you're proud to recommend.

I would guess SEOmoz's indexing depends on the popularity of the site, much like Google's caching is more regular on more important sites. What's the mozRank of the site? As a wild guess I'd say check again in a week.

Rand's answer to this question surprised me when I read it in the Monthly Moz-Letter from July. Short version: reciprocal links not working is a widely spread myth that even I believed** until reading this:**

Rand(om) Question**** Want to ask Rand your inbound marketing question? Send it toErica, our newsletter wrangler, and you might see your answer here next month.

Walter Hicks asks, "If a website has a backlink to mine, is it bad to link back to their site? Does Google see that as a reciprocal link and basically nullify them?"

Hi Walter,

This is such a common misconception that we put it on our list of top SEO myths (at #6 in this WB Friday video). Linking to a site that links to you has no negative impacts, and you shouldn't worry about doing so. The only caveat is the intent; Google's webspam team cares a lot about how you acquire links and why sites/pages link to each other. If the only reason you're getting a link is because you've agreed to link to someone, you're in danger and Google is working to stop those links from having an impact. If there's a legitimate reason for both to exist, you're on safe ground.

Wish you luck!
Rand