Link building remains one of the most significant challenges for websites and businesses. After all, it’s not that simple to just get visitors for your website, considering that the online competition has become incredibly tough.
While genuine link building stems from quality SEO content, there are a few tricks that can help businesses build more links and get more organic traffic on their website.
One of many ways of building links is to use reciprocal link building. This is a tried and tested technique, and many people wonder if it’s still good enough to get you more organic traffic.
In this post, you will learn all you need to know about reciprocal link building.
Reciprocal Link Building
Reciprocal link building refers to exchanging links with other websites. So, when you put another website’s link on your blogs, and they do the same for you, it helps both parties gain organic traffic. In many ways, it’s a simple technique that can yield excellent results in the long run.
With reciprocal link building, there is an excellent chance to increase your referral traffic and Google search rankings. For instance, Muzigal organically grew its online traffic through link building. The result of this link-building process was an increase in the domain rating from 37th to 15th.
While reciprocal link building may seem deliberate, Google suggests that it is natural in many instances.
The Risk of Using Reciprocal Links -What Google Says?
Even though Google’s general opinion seems quite promising for reciprocal link builders, certain risks are always there. For example, if you don’t use the system appropriately and breach the Google Webmaster Guidelines. Excessive reciprocal linking can also go against you in many cases.
So, let’s say you use too many reciprocal links in one of your blog posts, and they are all directed to a specific site. If the same site links back to your pages in a similar density of links, it’s a case of reciprocal linking abuse. That’s where Google takes action against this form of link building.
The reason? As a reader, you won’t get the right impression from the content, and it may appear like spam, too. Since Google wants its readers to read from the best resources, it identifies such content as spammy, which could lead to penalties from Google.
Do You Get Penalized for Reciprocal Linking?
Google often tinkers with its search engine algorithms. It’s common to see regular updates and refreshes in Google’s measurement mechanisms. However, this has tricked digital marketers into believing that reciprocal link building is negative. As a result, many people think that reciprocal linking doesn’t work anymore.
Google’s penalties arrive in the most severe cases of reciprocal linking. So, as long as you stay within limits and link with credible sites, there is nothing to worry about.
Google Promotes Natural Reciprocal Linking
Google supports natural reciprocal linking. So, the links shouldn’t appear to be a part of a scheme, and there must be enough proof of trust between the two linking sites. As a result, it can help you achieve a better SEO score, as well as a better ranking. But generally, it works when you link to an authoritative site, and you get a link back naturally.
Are Reciprocal Links Common in Search Results?
Considering that Google doesn’t mind reciprocal linking, one must wonder whether these pages appear in Google’s search results. According to the research, reciprocal link building comprises 43.7% of the top ten search results.
Benefits of Reciprocal Linking for SEO
The value of SEO link building is undeniable, and the story isn’t too different when we consider reciprocal linking.
Share Precious Link Equity from Established Sites
Perhaps the most significant advantage of all shared link equities is a traffic booster, especially for smaller sites. SEO professionals also call it the ‘Link Juice.’ When a credible website links your page, it increases your credibility, too. At the same time, you can expect some traffic from the other websites.
Earn More Referral Traffic
Using your backlinks intelligently, you can boost your website’s referral traffic through reciprocal linking. For instance, if you get a backlink from a higher-ranking page on the search results, the traffic will undoubtedly flow to your webpage, too.
So, regardless of whether your webpage was receiving enough instant traffic through an organic search, there will be sufficient referral traffic from other credible sites.
This is because readers on established sites are keen to check out the resources and links mentioned in the blog posts. So, they will probably visit your page, too.
Diversify Your Linking Profile
A link profile is a set of backlinks available on your website. Search engines rank those pages higher, with a more comprehensive range of links to authority sites. When you have a diversified link profile, it helps boost your search engine rankings.
But, that doesn’t mean you can link anything from anywhere. There must be a mix of inbound and outbound links. If there is a bulk of inbound linking without any quality outbound links, you cannot expect your page to rank highly.
Reciprocal link building is crucial for SEO, and even the top content creators and SEO experts are using this technique on their official blogs. QuickSprout linking Jeffbullas and vice versa may be an old but classical example of how SEO benefits from reciprocal link building.
In short, when you measure your link-building success, you will realize that reciprocal linking has a significant role, especially from an SEO point of view.
FAQs
1. Will reciprocal link building harm your SEO?
You need to make sure your link building is not violating any guidelines. Excessive building of links can harm your SEO.
2. How to check whether your link has violated any rules?
You can use Google Webmaster Guidelines to check your link building.
3. How do reciprocal links help your SERP?
Linking your content to quality sites increases your website credibility and creates trust in the information you provide thereby increases your SERP ranking.
Conclusion
Quality link building is all about making intelligent choices. Whether it’s a large enterprise or a small business, high-quality link building can make a difference in your professional practices. So, make sure to choose a link-building service that can raise your website to new heights. Now that you know all about reciprocal link building, it’s time to integrate this technique and boost your online presence.
