Reciprocal Linking

Reciprocal Linking

by: Jason Blackston

Reciprocal linking is considered by many people the most effective way to increase traffic to your website. You often get hits from the web sites that you have exchanged your links with, and reciprocal linking also helps boost your search engine rankings.

What is a reciprocal link?

A reciprocal link is a link to a website that carries a similar link back to your own website.

A reciprocal link is a common thread between you and another website owner. You both likely share similar websites and content, and you are oกkay with the possibility of a viewer leaving your site to take a look at your linking partnerกs site.

What a reciprocal link is not…

A reciprocal link is not a cure all! Many times webmasters have a ton of links. The problem is that many of those links are broken or out of date. I will share a resource to help you find those broken links in a minute. But first you need to find sites to link to!

A great way to find sites that might like to link to your site is to use Link Finder at http://siteowner.bcentral.com/linkfinder.cfm Here you can check for links to your competition or other sites that are related to yours.

*Getting back to finding those broken links…

You can find broken links, spot bad HTML code, check browser compatibility, find slowloading pages, and check your spelling at http://www.netmechanic.com/cobrands/zd_dev/

By utilizing reciprocal linking strategies, you can enhance your web presence. Take advantage of these tools and start climbing to the top!

About The Author

Discover proven methods of converting website visitors into paying customers! Pick up your free epackage at http://www.govisitors.com. And be sure to utilize the resources page for free articles, ebooks, and other information, that can help enhance your marketing campaigns.

© Jason Blackston

This article was posted on January 27, 2004

by Jason Blackston

Are You SURE Your Link Partners Still Link to You?

Are You SURE Your Link Partners Still Link to You?

by: John Gergye

It’s a fact. While most link partners are scrupulously honest a few are little more than link scam artists. They’ll take a link from you to them. Put up your link back. But then when you’re not looking take yours down.

They win. You lose.

Now I’m not saying this happens a lot. But it does happen. And if you’re the type this would irritate, you’ve got to have a way to keep your link partners honest.

You do so by monitoring your links. Not like a neurotic every day unless you want to. But more like a checking the oil in your car. Maybe once a month. Or every six weeks. You know just to keep things on the up and up?

Now sure, if you’ve got nothing better to do, you can do this checking by hand.

Keep a list of link partners.

Note the page your link appears on.

One by one go to the sites, scan the page and eyeball your link. Up front and personal.

Of course if you’re like me, you’re constantly running out of day before running out of work. So who has time for that?

Besides why do it the hard way when there are some ready made, inexpensive or free even, tools to automate the task for you? Some are loaded with features with a price to match. Others do one thing and do it well monitor your links.

Here’s a quick list of some options.

Link Check Pro

http://www.linkcheck.net/

Reciprocal Link Checker 1.0

http://www.rebrandsoftware.com/showsoftware2.asp?soft_id=18

Reciprocal Link Monitor

http://caribbeanmarketing.net/reciprocal/

Reciprocal Manager

http://reciprocalmanager.com/

Automatic Link Checker

http://www.softbizscripts.com/automaticlinkcheckerscriptfeatures.php

Reciprocal Link Spider

http://www.reciplinks.com/

Now you can scurry off and check out each of these and try to decide which might be right for you.

Or if you prefer I can make it easy for you

The Envelope Please…

My favorite and the one I use is

Reciprocal Link Monitor

http://caribbeanmarketing.net/reciprocal/

I like this one because it runs on your desktop, it’s brain dead simple to use and it’s sole mission in life is to monitor links. Even better since it’s been sold with reprint rights, it can be found online dirt cheap.

It’s so easy to use my 80 year old dad could almost do it.

All you do is create a text file of the URLs where your link is supposed to be. (If you’ve got more than one site then create one for each.)

Import that text file into Reciprocal Link Monitor.

Add the exact URL you want it to find on your partners page.

Then unleash Reciprocal Link Monitor and let the software do it’s thing.

No muss. No fuss. Check as often as you like.

The Runner Up…

Like a junk yard dog Automatic Link Checker is ever vigilant. Ever watchful.

What some may especially like about this one is it automatically checks your links for you DAILY. And sends you a report of what it does or doesn’t find.

Plus it’s cheap.

Even better the brilliant minds behind Automatic Link Checker will install it for peanuts.

If you admire constant vigilance, then this one is for you.

The Deal Beyond the Deal

But wait. There’s a second application here we don’t want to overlook.

You see, while it’s proper protocol to let your new links partner know you put their link up, you’ll soon discover not everyone can be bothered. Leaving that little painintheneck task of verification up to you.

Well, let’s eliminate it. Here’s how…

When on the prowl for new links (and you are nearly every day, right?) create a list of the links pages of recent link solicitations. Quickly check them with Reciprocal Link Monitor. That’s right let the software check for the presence or absence of new links each day or two. This way you’ll be aware of new links whether your new partner lets you know or not.

So this is how you can rest easy and KNOW for sure that your link partners still link back to your site. I’ll leave it up to you to decide what to do with those link rustlers who once did but now don’t.

Copyright 2004 John Gergye

About The Author

John Gergye shares more ideas like this in his just updated eBook ‘traffic From Google in 35 Daysก. Find out more here: http://www.traffictesttube.com/j/tfg35cl.shtml/. Or test your search engine IQ by taking his seo quiz http://www.traffictesttube.com/searchenginequiz.shtml/ and get the free special report กComing Out On Topก.

This article was posted on December 05, 2004

by John Gergye

The Basics of Asking for a Reciprocal Link

The Basics of Asking for a Reciprocal Link

by: Marc Singer

Asking another webmaster for a reciprocal link is standard practice on the Internet. Webmasters have been asking other webmasters for reciprocal links since the beginnings of the Internet. The very nature of the web is linking websites to one another. It is of even higher importance, now that AltaVista and others have changed their ranking algorithms.

If a webmaster considers your email spam, then he can report you. If your emails are unique, without commercials, and are personalized with unique personal information about the webmasterกs web site that you are emailing, then it would be hard to call your email spam.

All webmasters must be responsible in their asking for reciprocal links. This includes following simple rules and guidelines in choosing web sites to include in your link directory.

Organizing a TightlyThemed Vertical Link Directory

Reciprocal links do increase your search engine positioning if used properly.TightlyThemed Link Directories get high ratings from search engine robots, but only if they are true resources of organized knowledge. Search engines are getting very smart in their query result rankings. They include all kinds of advanced calculations pertaining to how the links point to you and away from you. They can include keywords in their algorithms, and now they know how tightly linked your Themes or subjects are. Don’t try to fool them into better positioning by including a lot of web sites that are outside your web siteกs real Themes in your Link Directory.

Your Link Directoryกs Themes must match the Themes of your web site. You must not let your zeal to email, and perhaps get a reciprocal link overpower your need to create a true web resource. You don’t want to create a directory that includes all the knowledge of mankind and also sounds like a soft drink. You should be happy with organizing a tightly Themed Vertical Link Directory. Be the best in your area, linking only sites that relate to you.

A smaller, tightlythemed Link Directory will grow much faster than a diluted, looselythemed, large bulky one. Your web siteกs traffic will quickly increase, not only with visitors from your Reciprocal Link partners but will also increase from Search Engine visitors, once their robots quickly find your Link Directory pages through your Link Partners!

Email General Guidelines

If you are including web sites in your Link Directory just because you want to send an email and possibly get a link, then you are spamming in mind and spirit. The webmaster who receives this kind of email is not a happy camper. He or she is proud of his achievements in creating traffic to his site over the last few years, perhaps millions of hits every month, only to receive an email asking him to link to a web site that in no way can remotely match his web site or be useful for his visitors. This is spam. Remember the phrase reciprocal links? Please change it to Reciprocal Themed Links. This is important !

DO NOT commercialize your email in any way.

It shouldn’t look like spam or people will think it is. Do not include ANY links in your email signature area except links to your web site. Keep it short and to the point. Ask for a reciprocal link and thatกs it.

This message should only be a few lines, and not a long narrative with rules and guidelines. Save that for your information on your link directory. Use a unique email reciprocal link message.

It is possible for webmasters to receive the same basic message from another webmaster. Each reciprocal link request MUST look different by being fresh and original.

Do not use Letกs Trade Links as your subject. Letกs trade Links is probably the most used email subject line on the Internet today, as there are thousands of webmasters using this phrase. If you keep this subject line, then you are sending the same one as everyone else. It will not be accepted or worse, it will look like spam.

Personalize every email message

Include a personal comment in the email message to each of your selected email addresses. You could include something like: กI really like the animations you had on your home page.ก, ก.. and loved your background imageก or กI loved the content on …… pageก. This personal comment should prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that you personally visited their web site.

Use logic when selecting those to receive an email.

Before you can send a reciprocal link request, you need to explore their web site to decide if you want to include them in your link directory. You need to also use some thought in who you send a message to. A super large web site will probably not trade links with you in the beginning, perhaps you should save those for later. If you cannot find a links page, they are not going to trade links either. Think before sending email.

I hope this helps in your future marketing decisions.

About The Author

Marc Oswald Singer

CEO WSP Advertising Inc.

http://www.wspromotion.com/

This article was posted on August 07, 2004

by Marc Singer