Tom Shivers

Is your organic search ranking too low? Could it be because you are not aware of the pitfalls of managing link requests? This article is for webmasters and Internet marketers who must discern valuable link opportunities vs. worthless ones and organize link web pages that provide real value. If you don't know this stuff, you could be wasting time with your link-building efforts, putting you further behind your competitors and your link pages will never generate enough interest from webmasters to exchange links with quality sites.

The 3-way (or x-way) link fallacy
Three-way or x-way linking can work, but it is based on the assumption that webmasters can fool Google by not reciprocating links directly between sites and that Google gives more rank value to "non-reciprocal" links than to reciprocal links. Actually there is no proof that Google gives more rank value to non-reciprocal links than to reciprocal links. I like to ask the proponents of 3-way linking for this proof and they usually get real quiet.

It is ridiculous for a webmaster to think that he/she could actually fool Google with x-way linking. Google's PhDs manage the algorithm and, although it's not perfect, it's far more advanced than what I sometimes hear from webmasters who attempt to explain it. I really wish webmasters would say something like this: "Google's algo is very complicated to explain, so I'd rather you read what Google says about itself." OK, off of my soapbox.

The real problem I see with 3-way/x-way linking is the deceptive practices that can come with it (yep, the ugly). For example, you'll receive an e-mail from a 3-way linker saying, "We've placed a link (to your site) on our site and now we want you to link to our client's site to complete the 3-way link." But when you look closely at the website that has your link on it, you find that it is really a reciprocal link partner of yours that has been in place for some time. The 3-way linker hopes you don't notice it by placing a link to his site anyway. The 3-way linker can take advantage of your hard work if you let him, without giving any benefit in return.

With reciprocal linking, there is significantly less confusion about who is responsible for the link on the website. And it's easier to manage because you're working with two sites, rather than three or more.

The Google PageRank myth
Contrary to the mass appeal of Google's PageRank (PR) number, most SEO professionals think the Google PR number plays a very small role in it's ranking algorithm and most also think this number gets far more attention than it deserves. I've seen top-ranked web pages with a very low PR, as well as the opposite. The fact of the matter is Google updates the actual PR of web pages whenever they want, so much of the time no one knows what the true PageRank for any web page is except Google.

Recently, Google lowered the PR of most web pages in an attempt to combat the link broker industry, businesses that sell links on web pages that have a high PR. So don't get sidelined into believing the "published" PR for a web page makes a big difference as you consider a link from that website. I'd rather have lots of relevant links from PR zero web pages than a few links from pages with a PR 7 value and questionable relevance.

Weed out the one good link request from all the bad ones:

• Is the links web page indexed in the search engines? Sometimes links pages are not in Google because they are new pages that have not been picked up by the search engines yet. If this is the case, see if you can navigate to the links page from the home page. If it takes more than 3 clicks to get, don't bother.
• Are the links on the links web page tagged with the nofollow attribute? Google does not follow links with the nofollow tag and, therefore, it does not increase your link popularity. You'll need to look at the code for the links and if you see rel="nofollow", the link has been tagged with nofollow.
• Does your website topic resonate with the links page topic? Another way of asking this question: does it make sense that the web visitors at the site in question be naturally interested in your business if they see it listed? If the links on the web page have nothing to do with your topic, don't bother.
• Are there too many links on the links web page? Google recommends no more than 100 links be listed on a sitemap web page. If you are organizing topical content on the web, 100 links is a lot for any topic. Otherwise, the topic gets diluted, the links get diluted and it's a sign that the webmaster is not aware of quality links organization and management.
• Are there links on the links web page to adult sites, casino sites, etc.? Yes, search engines notice the degrees of separation between links to websites on a web page - another reason why topical relevance is valuable.

The problem with automated link-building programs
Automation is great for things that don't change too often, but search engine algorithms are always in flux. The key here is qualification of the links page. If it's done automatically by software, it probably is of no value unless the software stays up-to-date on the latest issues of identifying quality link pages. Another problem is automatically generated e-mails sent to website owners requesting a link. In most cases, this is spam and will not result in a partnership.

One solution is to use software, but refrain from all automation so you can qualify the links page yourself. Are you interested in some good link-building software? I would have put it in this article but I know better; however, if you promise to refrain from automation, I can offer you some tips. Just convince me you won't become an automation junky.

Is there a limit to link exchange?
Yes and no.

Matt Cutts, Google engineer, has said that their algorithm can spot excessive reciprocal links, meaning that excess reciprocal links does not improve rank. He has also said compelling sites that are well-marketed attract editorially chosen links, which tend to help a site more.

It is easy to blast out thousands of e-mails to get reciprocal links. And if that's your definition of link exchange, you have lost editorial discretion and reciprocal linking is limited for your site.

Reciprocal linking is valuable if you take the time to do it with careful analysis and with respect for those involved in establishing the link relationship. Many sites have gained great rankings this way.

If there were no ranking algorithms, the only reason for a site to link to another site would be relevance in topic or audience - a good rule of thumb. Keep this in mind and there is no limit to link exchange.

How does one track when a link is added or dropped to make sure they are reciprocating?
Check out my article: How To Evaluate Your Backlinks

Thanks to Moldova.org and United Artists, for use of the picture from the movie: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.