1. Fundamental of Reciprocal link
Earlier, search engines optimizers made money with the help of reciprocal links. Though with the
span of time its usefulness has reduced yet it is worthy enough to be used. Although most may be
aware of its advantages and disadvantages and know what circumstances may come.
The very first problem is reciprocal links are not as much of worth as one-way links used to be.
Search engines can reduce their usefulness by easily taking away and reducing their certain
attributes. Due to this, we presume in the near future its relevance will reduce as search engines
will indulge into more and more advanced and complicated ventures.
We shall study two basic differences:
Firstly, reciprocal links have been the original method of developing link building therefore we
must understand how they work. There can be chances that you and your contender end up
making use of the reciprocal links to acquire the same high search engine ranking.
Secondly, reciprocal links can help you gain rankings though not as they previously did. However,
link building can sometimes turn into a demanding process and with reciprocal links being the
easiest way to achieve links. These are regarded as second-class links. Roughly they comprise of
not more than 25% of the inbound link count.
Keeping the future in mind we mustn't entirely be dependent on reciprocal links because search
engines find enough reasons to abate them. Plus they do not find sufficient reasons to trust them.
But if you are still involved in the link exchange process then below are certain techniques you can
try out:
Firstly always reciprocate links to websites sufficiently relevant in class to yours. Another detail
you must be concerned about is that you are in the process of building links which look natural.
For things appear profusely unnatural to search engines than a reciprocal link between two
websites which are entirely different from each other. Don't get tensed about this but just remain
vigilant about it.
Similarly, if you reciprocate a cosmetic selling site to a website that lists WiFi hubs, this might
appear like a doubtful case yet can be accepted only if the cosmetic selling site is actually a WiFi
hub. Such sites may not be strictly related to each other yet a logical connection can be built
between them.
Similarly, it would be pointless to have a reciprocal link between a gadgets site and shoe site. For
it is virtually impossible to create and show a logical reason between them, thus, none will be of
benefit to the other. However a search engine considers this attempt of trying to make efforts to
manipulate search engine rankings.
In the process of choosing your links always stay alert. If you link to sites relevant to yours as well
as get links from such sites you stand a good chance to get finest of results.
Secondly what you need to be concerned of is that if you link to a particular site then it should be
a good resource to your site, moreover, relevant to what your website offers. You will suffer from
a penalty if only you have a valid reason for reciprocating links beyond just boosting your search
engine rank either now or in future.
Lastly, reciprocal links are used for the principal purpose of sending traffic to your website. Soon
reciprocal links will lose the power to get you the targeted traffic so the linking page should have
the capacity to at least get you some amount of targeted traffic. This way you will in some way or
the other get some profit from the link.

2. After understanding what is the art of swapping links, let us now analyze the way to recognize
those websites that turn out to be good reciprocal link partners.
Getting good Reciprocal link partners
You can always start by searching in most search engine giant. The initial pages of search will
contain some really good results for reciprocal link exchange. By ranking at the top, all the search
engine indicates is that the site is most relevant when searched with a particular keyword. And all
everyone wants is links from the sites most search engines consider important.
Highly ranked pages and you may end up receiving alike visitors that you were looking for. You get
some traffic from them only if they decide to link to your site as well. One way that can be helpful
in selecting link partners is if you use the Google directory to find sites which are prearranged by
Pagerank and are relevant to yours. You may want websites that are highly ranked by PageRank
so look up for a suitable site and work upon it accordingly.
Certain websites may stand in competition with you resulting into them not supplying you with a
link. Furthermore, you will gain from websites that complement your site as against the ones in
opposition to yours. For instance, if your website is of selling denim jeans then a site which sells t-
shirts will prove to be a good link partner. For both the websites complement each other as they
both sell clothing and therefore are not in direct competition. Therefore as a matter of fact, search
websites complimenting yours are profitable for they do not sell exactly what you sell as this
raises competition.
After you have found top ranked pages relevant for your keywords on every possible search
engine giant as well as in the Google directory, start looking up pages linked to them.
We'll make it simple by using an invented example: www.website.com
Let's say, you would search in Google or Yahoo or any other search engine giant for this website
as:
Link: http://www.website/com
Through this every search engine will provide you with a list of pages they see are linked to the
searched page. Google may provide a partial result in this regard for it is tentative in revealing
detailed information but Yahoo and Bing will provide you with an almost complete list of links
pointing at the page you searched for.
Very few search engines either do not have the 'search link' feature but still rest of the sites
provide a pretty clear list of the links linked to a particular web page.
The below mentioned online tool helps in finding linked pages to a particular web page:
http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/
Possibility is you will get assistance from this method to put together a lengthy list of possible link
partners to begin requesting links from. Also make it a point to begin your linking in order of
importance i.e. in descending order.
Way to send out Link requests
Now that you have the list of would-be customers that will turn into your link partners and
compliment your site, your next move should be to send them a link exchange request. Keeping

3. time management in mind, the best way to approach your potential link partners is via Email.
Make sure to send the email to the best contact person/location. Either address your email to the
Webmaster or the marketing department. By far, the contact information is under the contact
pages of a website. Try to contact the person by name, this will indicate your authenticity and not
seem like any programmed script randomly trying to distribute link requests. Besides this, spend
some time on their website and look for a real person's contact info, furthermore it is better to
address your letter to a real person rather than to the company name or website name.
From the example stated below, we have illustrated the pros of link exchange system. The
initiative behind this is to increase the advantages while lowering the work load and get the same
results.
After this, there are 100% chances of getting their response. If this is not the case, resend your
request a month later and wait. Yet if there is no response, try sending a request again and wait a
month. Continue the process for say four to five times max, and leave it after a certain number of
trails. For it’s no use to annoy someone.
Now all you need to know is the way to write your link request email. For instance, you own a
company that sells Denim Jeans, so your request mail would appear as below:
Hello {personalize the company's name or site's name or the addressee's name here}
We would appreciate your concern if you add a link to our website, DenimJeans.com, to
your page at:
http://website.com/webpage.html/
Your visitors would learn about how to determine Jeans quality, texture, cloth reliability
and the history behind the evergreen attire, from our website.
Below is our website's Name and URL with a short description:
Denim Jeans
http://wwwDenimJeans.com
We sell Denim Jeans available in all flamboyant colors and designs, sizes, styles and
fabrics at great prices.
We have also linked your site from this page:
http://www.DenimJeans.com/webpage.html/
We would be glad to hear from you.
Best regards,
{Your name}
{Your Company Name}
{Your Contact Information}
The email should be altered in a much more specific way for this is a mere example. The one plus
point of this mail is that you are telling them to which particular page you want to be linked and to
which of their page have you already linked. When they will see you have already linked to them,
they are more likely to respond to you this way.
The email must be tailored according to your company and needs to add a personal touch to it.
And you will soon get their response.

4. Also keep a record of whom you send requests and when. So that you don't end up duplicating
your efforts and it is easy for you to follow them. Try and keep up a searchable catalog of your
potential and actual link partners.
Reciprocal link is a two-party process i.e. in order to gain a link from others; you have to give a
link first. This will lead to the overly enthusiastic link partners of yours to get into that position.
A clever link partner will insist you to place links at some important portions of your site like in the
body of an article or the main area of your content of your website. There may be instance where
you find some handy content on their site that you could make use of to put on show their link
onto your website. They may own an article or resource which they may allow you to use it in
substitute for a link.
Do not ever keep a links page so and it should not only consist of links but something else too like
content or images. The best way to modify it is by naming it something like “directory of
resources” and you can always provide a short summary of each website with a small description
about them. Such an informative page can make your page from merely being a links page to a
highly informational based page. Seeing this, search engines will rank your page well, not
considering it to be a spam page.
If optimized rightly then a good links page will be of benefit to you by producing links on its own.
Submission of your site to link pages
Other than reciprocal linking, one common way of linking was by submitting your site to link
pages but with time this practice as faded away and has lost its effective charm. There are so
many sites at present, where you can place your link on any site and they won’t even question
you for it.
A simple task to acquire several links at a time is the sole reason of why these links are not in
demand anymore for developing incoming links to your site. Even search engines know that
anybody can get these links and so they are called free-for-all link pages.
Likewise, pages that get these free-for-all links are located on low quality websites; most
frequently are irrelevant to your site. Meaning such links do not help rather degrade your web
pages’ rankings on search engines.
If you want to seriously start looking for links then you can make use of the following list of
phrases in searching for incoming links that will be useful by getting you incoming links in
thousands:
"links" + you keywords "favorite sites" + your keywords
"add link" + your keywords "favorite places" + your keywords
"add a link" + your keywords "favorite websites" + your keywords
"add you link" + your keywords "submit URL" + your keywords
"add a site" + your keywords "submit a URL" + your keywords
"add your site" + your keywords "submit your URL" + your keywords
"add URL" + your keywords "submit website" + your keywords
"add a URL" + your keywords "submit a website" + your keywords
"add your URL" + your keywords "submit your website" + your keywords
"add website" + your keywords "submit link" + your keywords
"add a website" + your keywords "submit a link" + your keywords
"add your website" + your keywords "submit your link" + your keywords
"favorite links" + your keywords "submit site" + your keywords

5. "submit a site" + your keywords "suggest website" + your keywords
"submit your site" + your keywords "suggest a website" + your keywords
"link exchange" + your keywords "suggest your website" + your keywords
"link trade" + your keywords "suggest link" + your keywords
"link swap" + your keywords "suggest a link" + your keywords
"recommended links" + your keywords "suggest your link" + your keywords
"recommended sites" + your keywords "suggest a site" + your keywords
"recommended places" + your keywords "suggest your site" + your keywords
"recommended websites" + your keywords "suggest URL" + your keywords
"cool link" + your keywords "suggest a URL" + your keywords
"cool sites" + your keywords "suggest your URL" + your keywords
"cool places" + your keywords "reciprocal" + your keywords
"cool websites" + your keywords "resources" + your keywords
"suggest site" + your keywords "exchange links" + your keywords
The free-for-all links pages are a play ground for SEO beginners and fast buck entrepreneurs.
Although they can result into bringing huge number of links still they may not bring to your
website prolonged success. Search engines are thereafter taking up steps to cut the rate of such
links by taxing them within their ranking principles. And if by chance you come across an
exception for they are busy completing their work along with the cooperation of search engines.
Till now only Google has been able to dish out such links. And soon Yahoo and Bing will also
augment upon their ranking algorithms as well. Supposing you are looking for an instant rise in
the rankings for a site of yours that is here for a short span of time then this technique may help.
A lot of websites are functioning in this way because the moment their site reaches noteworthy
position they are later penalized. There after coming up with an entire fresh site.
With Google, this technique works out but if by chance you are thinking to be at the top for long
then simply leave it. All you need is the technique to create and build links the right way.
We will continue to talk in more detail about this in our next article.
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