Understanding SEO With Aedig

Excessive reciprocal linking may trigger a Google penalty or cause a SERPS filter to be applied when the same or very similar link anchor text is used over and over again and large numbers of reciprocal links are added in a relatively short time.

The dangers are made worse by adding reciprocal links to low quality sites or websites which have an unrelated theme. This can lead to a backlink over optimisation penalty (known as a BLOOP to SEO experts!). a Google Backlink Over Optimisation Penalty causes a sudden drops in SERPS ranking (often severe).

To avoid this problem, reciprocal link exchange should only be used as part of a more sustainable SEO strategy which also builds quality one way links to original website content.

Adding reciprocal links to unrelated sites is a risky SEO strategy, as is reciprocal link exchange with low quality websites.

To help identify quality link exchange partners we use a simple but effective test – regardless of indicated Page Rank, if you can’t find a website’s homepage in the top 20 of the Google search results (SERPS) when you search for the first 4 words of a site’s full HTML title (shown at the top of the Internet Explorer window) then undertaking reciprocal link exchange with that site may offer few advantages.

Don’t forget to check that prospective reciprocal link partners have a similar theme as your homepage too.