Link Exchange...It's not for SEO breakfast any more.

Now that's interesting and informative news.  Thanks for sharing it.

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Linda,

With respect....may I provide some alternative experience? Please understand that, in the spirit of full disclosure, I am in the business of reciprocation. Anyone is welcome to discount what I have to say for that reason, but I can back up my comments here easily. At some point, it is valid to accept the input from actual practitioners.  I do want to be respectful here, but I am also going to offer many arguments that contradict what you have said.

I have been in the business of managing reciprocation campaigns since before Google existed (1997). Since that time, I have managed hundreds of campaigns, in all kinds of industries, but mostly real estate.

From our perspective here of actually doing this work day-in-and-out, on real sites, we have seen no change at all in how Google looks at reciprocation, if it is done properly. That is, with other relevant sites. For real estate, that means home and realty-related sites. 

We have many long-term clients that have used reciprocation as their only means to earn links, and they sit at or near the top of the Google rankings, consistently, and throughout all the various Google updates.

We also have a lot of new clients that have climbed the rankings in a few months time. Then they hold there.

All in all, we generally advise our clients to get as many links as possible, from as many valid source as possible, both one way and reciprocated. Most do not. They simply rely on the reciprocation links that we manage for them, and they move on with other aspects of being an agent.

Reciprocation seems to have no bearing on the outcome. Links are links.

Linda, you reference Matt Cutts, at Google. Unfortunately, people read into his comments what they want to hear. Both he and his colleague, Adam Lasnik, have stated emphatically that they do not have a problem with legitimate reciprocation, and they realize that sites will reciprocate to their mutual benefit, as has been done since long before Google existed.

Reciprocation between sites in the same realm of interest is a fundamental web marketing practice that pre-dates every single search engine. For Google to stomp on that would be for them to try to alter the fundamentals of the World Wide Web. The web is network of links. Sites in the same realm will inevitably link to each other.

Cutts and Lasnik do have a problem with sites trying to link to anything and everything. An example of that would be a health supplement site linking to automotive sites, gambling sites, etc.

Linda, you also say that one-way links are more time consuming and costly. Indeed, they usually are. And often they are much less plentiful. Raleigh is a mid market metro area. IN those markets, a modest foundation of links will likely help any site that does it's optimization. In highly competitive situations, you will see, again and again, that many of the top ranking sites use reciprocation to build a very large foundation of links. Competing with that with one-way links is very hard to do.

Fundamentally, searching for one-way links is not in keeping with the spirit of the World Wide Web. The goal should not be to be an island, but an active participant in a community of sites. That often means gracious reciprocation. You have to give to get.

Expecting other sites to link to yours, but you do not link to them, is a limited scope game, at best. What's more, the entire real estate industry is based upon cooperation and networking, more than any other industry. Reciprocation is the online  manifestation of that mindset. You have to remove Google from the equation here to see this clearly.

Not reciprocating is a concept that was hatched within the SEO community, out of some very flawed logic. I can show you example after example of sites that have used reciprocation very, very effectively, regardless of Google. For instance, our automotive clients simply want to be as well established in the automotive realm as they can possibly be. Since most of the linking opportunities are via reciprocation with other automotive sites, that is what they do. And those reciprocated links, on their own merit, drive considerable traffic to their sites, independent of Google.

You have removed your link directory unilaterally. Eventually, your link partners will becomes aware of this and remove your links as well. For every link you are gaining, you may be losing one.

Certainly, I am not here to change your mind. You have made your decisions, and you feel that those are the right decisions. I am just here to point out, that over time, even the mid-to-small market areas (like Raliegh) will become just as competitive as places like Phoenix, Vegas, SoCal, etc.

Our older clients tend to come from the largest metro areas, but our newer clients are coming from the mid-to-small markets. The competitive heat is rising.

If the current conditions prevail, and I have seen nothing at all to suggest that they won't, it will be the sites that build a large foundation of reciprocated links that get to the top and stay at the top of the rankings. Sites with modest numbers of carefully cultivated one-way links may well find themselves displaced, if they can't keep pace. This is not just theory or wishful thinking. We actually see it all the time, in real-time situations, as our own clients tend to be the ones displacing the modestly linked sites.

Again, Linda, I am conveying exactly what I see, in the course of my work. Some may call it self-promotion. Other people may appreciate a seasoned, every experienced perspective. I find it curious that people in the SEO world who do not reciprocate seem to feel that they understand how it works. If they don;t do it, they can't possibly understand it. It is a very nuanced subject that is only understood well by people who actually do the work and observe, first-hand, the outcome.

We work for a lot of real estate webmasters and SEO agencies, as well as for business owners who manage multiple sites. Why do they continue to bring new domains to us to work with? Because what we do doesn't work? That makes no sense. They continue to bring work to us because te work that we do lays a very solid foundation of relevant links under a site, at an affordable rate, and in a reasonable time. Then we continue to build upon that. 

Again, the choice is yours. Anyone can decide to not reciprocate, but their competitors will not be making that same decision, and they will begin to pursue as many links as possible, using reciprocation. They may even be hiring someone like us to assist that effort, and we can pursue links with real determination and continuous effort, while they address other tasks related to their business. Making unilateral decisions in that environment most certainly leaves a site vulnerable to competitors who are not som constrained 

Linda, again I appreciate the opportunity to respond. I fully expect that there will be follow on posts to this blog that insult me, call me a fool, call me a self-promoter, and whatever else. I am used to it. All I can say is that, when it comes to this subject, you can take advice from people who don't do this work, or from those who do, and fully understand it.

It is not a matter of believing me or them, since reciprocation will continue on unabated, regardless of what I say, or what some SEO consultant says. This is not about opinion. It should be about actual real world examples. And, if you look at actual search results, especially in real estate, you will see that those reciprocating sites are doing quite well. And this condition applies acutely to the most competitive markets in real estate.

Best regards, 

Dirk Johnson
Partner - Operations
DomainDrivers LLC
djohnson@domaindrivers.com
703-406-4698
www.domaindrivers.com