The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
February 2005, Volume 4, Issue 2

Is Your Website Un-Popular? Maybe You Should Consider Reciprocating

by Heather Molina, Algorithmic Team Leader, iProspect

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. Do you remember, like I do, fearing Valentine’s Day as a kid?

Every year I would spend a few hours, the weekend before the big day, putting together cards for every kid in my class. My mum would take me to the drug store to buy little cards with cartoon characters, and I would put candy in the envelope and script a little note to each person. It was a big effort for someone so little. And I was always afraid that no one would return the favor and give me a card as well, making my effort seem all for naught. Rejection can be tough.

You can get the same feeling when searching for opportunities to boost the link popularity of your website.

The message is clearly out there – linking strategies are critical to the success of your search engine marketing campaign. You’ve done the optimization and have even revamped your content to focus on attracting qualified visitors and allowing search engine spiders to crawl your website. Now that your website is worthy of getting links, you logically want to seek out opportunities.

So you put your efforts into hours and hours of research to find websites that complement the information you provide on your website. You find a dozen or so that meet your satisfaction, and you carefully draft a letter requesting a link. In the letter, you explain to the webmaster/site owner why you think they should link to your site and compliment them on the information their site provides. You send off the letters and cross your fingers that they will write back and say “Yes, I will link to you.” But, instead you get a letter back that says, “Let’s exchange links.” This isn’t what you had in mind. Your website doesn’t provide links to other resources. So you forgo the idea of getting a link from all of these quality sites, and find lower-quality sites who don’t expect you to link back to them.

But wait a minute! Take a step back and remember the “quality versus quantity” rule… Maybe you should reconsider and reciprocate.
Because competition for top positions on targeted keyword phrases can be fierce, quality websites have gotten more sophisticated with their linking conditions. They want to know, “What’s in it for me if I link to you?” They want to be popular too. And who can blame them? They’ve put together a website that offers legitimate information to users and they see you have done the same. Reciprocating the link is just a good business practice.

Now, reciprocating links isn’t ideal for every type of website. Websites that have to consider their legal issues to put any copy on the site (such as pharmaceutical sites) are usually prevented from pursuing reciprocal links. But, ecommerce and general information sites can benefit greatly by allowing reciprocal links to quality, complementary websites.

So the next time you research linking opportunities for your website, remember: “quality versus quantity.” And if the site is a prime linking opportunity, and they want a reciprocating link, think about the value you can gain if you consider it. This is not just a value to your performance in search engines, but to your site visitors as well. And maybe the next time you send out the letters requesting a link, you’ll have less rejection to fear.

Click here to subscribe to the Search Marketing Advisor newsletter now.

Find more information on iProspect's Link Popularity Services.

del.icio.us

Inquire About iProspect's Services

Access FREE White Papers and Webcasts

Subscribe to our FREE SEM Newsletter

View Upcoming Events and Webcasts

The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article: February 2005, Volume 4, Issue 2

Is Your Website Un-Popular? Maybe You Should Consider Reciprocating

The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
February 2005, Volume 4, Issue 2