Not too many years ago, reciprocal linking was downright de rigeur for webmasters trying to increase their page rank with Google. In an attempt to show Google that their site was such a great place to go, web owners would exchange links with one another. “If I add a link to your site, will you add a link on your page to my site?” For years, this was just standard practice.
The folks at Google are far from dumb, and in their current algorithms they actually check if sites engage in Reciprocal Linking and punish them for such an attempt.
“…[S]ome webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results.”
Turns out, this is nothing terribly new, and Google hinted at it a few years ago. In 2006, Google began hinting that they’d consider ‘docking’ reciprocal linking schemes.
Best way to get other sites to link to you and help build your site’s PageRank?
“The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it.”
