SEO Consult Blog

SEO tends to include a number of hurdle that website owners need to overcome in order to see their own pages rank highly in the search results. One such obstacle is finding genuinely useful methods of building links to web pages on a consistent basis. Links need to be from relevant pages and include relevant keywords within the anchor text of the code and it is this combination that makes it difficult source links on an ongoing basis. For these reasons, a lot of people try methods such as paid links or reciprocal links in order to generate SEO links.

Reciprocal Links

Reciprocal links were once the preferred technique of many an SEO. Two web pages would link to one another and both would be rewarded in the eyes of the search engines because they have themselves an inbound link. However, it was soon realised that this devalued the use of links in identifying good quality websites because reciprocal links were not rewarded on the basis of the quality of a website but on the willingness simply to offer a link back.

The Practice Still Exists

Even though search engines have greatly devalued the benefit of reciprocal links many websites and reciprocal link programs still exist and still have a lot of partners. While it is conceivable that a little weight is offered to good quality reciprocal links, more than likely determine on where the links are placed and other factors such as how many outbound links appear on the page, your link building efforts may be better spent looking for organic methods of building links.

Paid Links

Paid links were also very popular for a time, but Google particularly has stated that if it identifies a link as having been paid for then that link will not get the value it would have if it had been offered freely. Just how much attention Google and the other search engines pay to finding paid links is unclear but it’s reasonable to assume that the ever vigilant purveyors of quality content will take at least some step to try and identify paid links in a bid to cleanse their index.

SEO Link Building

The search engines attempt to diminish the value of link building practices that award links based on factors other than the provision of high quality content. This has led to reciprocal links and paid links being considered worth a lot less than they once were and when compared to the links had they been generated using organic methods. That doesn’t mean that these methods do not provide some value, however.

So Should You?

Paid and reciprocal links should not be considered a form of SEO link building but each link considered on its own merit. If it will generate its own surf through traffic and the exchange or price is reasonable then it is certainly worth considering. The search engines only devalue the links and will not penalise a site for attempting to build links to their website using either of these methods.

Related posts:

1. Identifying The Best SEO Link Partners
   When we talk about link partners it is important that we first qualify what we mean by a link partner. It doesn’t necessarily mean a...
2. Google And SEO
   Above all others, Google is the search engine of choice for the SEO because they hold such a dominant market share when it comes to...
3. Effective Link Building For SEO
   Building links to your web pages is a significant factor in the success of your search engine optimisation. Search engines view a link to a...
4. Are Paid Links Advantageous To Search Engine Optimisation?
   The use of paid links in a search engine optimisation campaign is always the subject of much debate. On the one side of the coin...
5. Hosted Content Pages And Advanced SEO Link Building
   With so many potential forms of link building it can be difficult to believe that so few offer a viable, long term source of links...