With search engines becoming more and more considerate about artificial link pattern, it is hard to make use of reciprocal links. The most artificial link pattern is that of reciprocal links because natural links are usually reciprocal.

1. Points To Consider While Choosing Reciprocal Links as a Part
of Link Building
Trouble with reciprocal links
With search engines becoming more and more considerate about artificial link
pattern, it is hard to make use of reciprocal links. The most artificial link pattern
is that of reciprocal links because natural links are usually reciprocal. That is, if a
site is listed on Yahoo's directory then it will not regularly link back to it.
Exceptions are always there but search engines are in search of links ranking well
due to popular and rich content. If a websites seems to have taken most of the
Webmaster's efforts of exchanging links then such sites are usually neglected.
Make an effort to look at things from the search engine's point of view. For
instance if CNN uploads an article in praise of your company and website, and if
your happen to link back to their site. Will this look normal to search engines?
Well, yes it will. For CNN has been listed under the White list of Google's most
authoritative sites. And so they cannot be wrong. And the link appears to be
100% natural, plus you too benefit by receiving significant increase in rankings.
For instance, your site has a page rank of 4 or 5, in addition gets linked to ABC's
homepage having a page rank of 2 or 3, and after linking back to ABC's
homepage you should not expect a sudden boost in your rankings. Such is the
case for both the websites so not appear authoritative according to the search
engine's point of view and seems intentionally invented.
Likewise if you have a similar link setting with, say 40 links on topic relevant
pages. With none of them making way to the spam filters, still your pages won't
get an instant boost in rankings in comparison, to a sole link to authoritative sites
like CNN or Yahoo Directory.
Calculating the quality of a link
Lately, link building has been very topic specific. The more closely relevant the
topic is, the better it is for search engines to identify them. Both the sites are
bound by this, whether it be you linking to any site or a site linking to yours.
Ranking algorithms are getting highly advanced with time. Search engines have
found a new of classifying websites. For instance, your website gets linked to or is
linked from a totally unknown site, meaning that you are going out in the
unknown to be known. It is an attempt to try something new. But this can be
speculated by the search engines many a times.
Your content is the most valuable asset you have. Therefore, linking to or being
linked more too often by off-topic pages, you stand at the brink of losing majorly

2. on the ranking front.
Though linking or getting linked from off-topic pages may look natural to search
engines but your aim should be to get your most inbound links from topic
relevant sites.
Move further than on-topical relevancy
We need to consider different factors when it comes to the Quality of links being
evaluated. It is not only the links from top ranked, on-topic web pages but links
from top ranking and topic specific pages are the major concern in linking
process.
1.Traffic to the linking page
Links are not only used for increasing your search engine ranks but are also used
as a source of targeted traffic. If more people visit the page with your site's link,
they are likely to visit your website for sure. People will believe what they will
see, resulting into the increase in rankings and your site getting links from those
who are willing to link to your site further escalating your inbound links. You
should know the fact that Google and some other search engines have decided
upon tracking people’s surfing habits. By which, anyone can make out that
trafficked sites get ideal rank.
Alexa service will help in finding an estimated traffic count of a website we want.
Find a page that will link to you, and then click on the site’s info link and the page
views.
You will only be able to track the surfing details of those people who have the
Alexa Service toolbar installed. Alexa may not provide you with the exact data but
it is still helpful in giving you a rough idea of your competitors’ website traffic.
Always ask for the site’s traffic statistics when you are linking to it especially if
you pay for the link.
2.Positions of a link
Preferably everyone would want their link to appear in the content of a web page.
For, your link will be enclosed by widely relevant keywords, this concept is known
as keyword proximity. Also increasing the chances of people reading the content
as well as clicking on your link.
If your link has been side lined, then see to it that you get it placed where it is
most likely to be seen. A web page is divided into sections, in which some
sections/portions work as strong parts and others as weak. Therefore your link
should obviously appear in the strong sections of a web layout.

3. The part that appears to the user with having to scroll down is one of the major
strong sections. Plus the type of page your link appears, matters too. Most
targeted and profitable position for your link is, when the site contains an article
that states the name of your company alongside links to you as well.
3.Ease of access to search engines
Links that are not crawled by search engines are absolutely worthless for they are
not benefitting in improving your rankings on search engines. To check whether a
web page has been indexed or not, simply type in a phrase from the page within
quotes in the search engine’s search box. If it is indexed then the page will show
up.
After the page is indexed, move further to find out as to how many times it being
indexed. Google’s cache feature next to every search result helps you to know the
date when Google last spidered that page. If the cache date is recent, it only
indicates that Google has been indexing the page regularly. Therefore, make sure
that your displayed page is in the cache section of the page.
Try and create a direct link to your website. For, a javascript link, or a redirect or
a nofollow link, has less value in comparison. The link’s destination is displayed in
the status bar of your web browser. Usually this feature is manipulated so in order
to check your link, find it in the HTML source code page.
Let’s take an example to understand this concept better, say, you own a site by
the name: www.your-website.com and are being link by a site named
www.website.com
In this case, a direct link in the HTML code appears as below:
<a href= http://www.your-website.com/> Text </a>
A javascript link looks like:
<a href=“javascript:void(0)” on-click=“window.open(http://www.you-
website.com/)” onmouse-over=“status=‘http://www.your-website.com’;
return true; “onmouseout= “status=defaultStatus; return true;””> Text
</a>
A redirected link looks like:
<a href=http://www.website.com/redir.php?r=http://www.your-website.com/>
Text </a>
And a nofollow link looks like:

4. <a href= “http://www.your-website.com/” rel=“nofollow”> text </a>
You may substitute your keywords in place of ‘text’, that is one area where your
keywords will work as magic for you in augmenting your rankings. Most SEO
advisors look out for such places to position your most important keyword there.
But also keep in mind to not keep all your links with the same keywords or text
phrase. As this can make search engines doubtful enough to penalize your
website. Your main aim being to create a natural looking incoming link structure –
a small amount of ‘click here’ links will make your inbound link structure appear
more natural than having a complete collection of richly placed incoming anchor
text links.
Incoming and outgoing links
Earlier we mentioned about keeping pages on topic specific pages. The same
works here, in case of the pages those are linking to you. Analyze incoming links
of your potential link partners and of those who are their partners or by whom
they are being linked. Links of a page will turn out to be more valuabe if they stay
close to their neighborhood. It is good to have less number of outgoing links. This
way, link equity of the page will be more centered to your link than being spread
out to other pages.
The ultimate link
It is good to see people linking to your site on the sheer basis of your site's
content, resources, and quality. New sites do not get links this way quickly. So
they need to really work upon collecting links from relevant sites by convincing
them to link to your site that would prove to be worthwhile
The links you receive in various forms, you should be able to estimate these links
as to when and how will they do wonders for you. The most profitable way is to
link to a trusted homepage i.e. topic specific. The lesser the count of outgoing
links there are, the better. By and large this is a best way of determining
incoming link quality.
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