SEO Articles

There are three types of link:

The reciprocal link

The one-way inbound link

Outbound links

We need only concern ourselves with the first two for the purposes of search engine optimisation, the third speaks for itself as it is.

A reciprocal link is where two websites trade links with one another. It is as simple as that. Website A will link to website B and request that site B links back to them. This is typically carried out by website A emailing the site owner/ webmaster at website B.

This can prove to be a time consuming process as it is always best to personalise your email and at the very least give the impression that  you have taken the trouble to view the recipient's site. There is nothing worse than receiving an automated link request, an identical copy of which has probably been sent out to a thousand other websites. You'll know one when you see it, they're horribly generic, so taking a little time with your link requests improves chances of a positive response.

The thing to remember with reciprocal links is that you will be placing an outbound link on one of your pages, therefore putting a vote in for that page. So please ensure that it is A) a quality site you're linking to; and B) of relevance to the content of your own site. Avoid exchanges with porn, casino, and pharmaceutical websites – FULLSTOP!!! Associations with such dens of iniquity will prove to be the kiss of death for your own pride and joy.

Avoid link-farms! These websites are nothing more than pages of uncategorised, unrelated links, set up for the sole purpose of manipulating SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) with manufactured inbound links. They'll offer no value and will surely only lead to penalisation should you link back.

Another factor to bare in mind is that Google doesn't particularly approve of any form of manufactured link building where the intent is to improve search engine rankings. This is referred to as 'gaming' the SERPs. Ideally they'd like all inbound links to be naturally formed, harking back to their value as a 'vote of confidence'. To this end:

The one-way inbound link is the best sort of link you can have. Once again you can try and attain these by emailing webmasters and making polite and informed requests, ensuring your site has the content and usability that people will want to link to. Ask yourself the question, is my site of use to the end-user of the targeted site? Don't waste time mailing requests to low quality sites that bare no relation to your own – time could be better spent targeting the sites that matter!

In the case of both one-way and reciprocal links, they are given extra weight when the anchor text is optimised to contain the keyword phrase for the web page to which they point. This isn't always possible, particularly in the case of naturally formed inbound links. But if a search engine spider sees the words in the link text and then sees that those keywords are relevant to the page upon which it lands, it will bestow extra weight upon it. Enough of these and your rankings can show a marked improvement for the relevant page.

Overall, it is best to remember that link building should be implemented as part of a gradual process. As you build links, your site will be found by others and natural links will manifest. Suddenly acquiring a hundred or so links a day, through automated submissions to spammy link farms or low-rent directories is a sure-fire way to red flag your website, and the search engines are only too eager to penalise accordingly.