It was bound to reach this point, and now I've firmly put
my foot down as of this past week and have begun to tell
all potential future link partners I won't "swap links."
I will link, but I will not "swap links" with anyone now.
I require content in the form of articles, press releases
and news, quotes, testimonials or some form of content. I link from the resource box of articles or contact info
from the press releases, URL's of the honest testimonials
I receive and contributed tutorials. Now the really bad
news is that I must like the articles or content which
are contributed - and I must play the role of editor to
wannabe contributors and discard pieces that don't meet
standards I set. What was it that ruined strict reciprocal links for me? It happened when I received a polite link request from
an apparently well-meaning reciprocal link partner and,
as always, clicked through to his requested linking URL.
I was forwarded immediately to an affiliate program page
which this scammer hoped to slip by without my noticing. If I had merrily added that link to my links page, he
would have another linking partner and would increase
his link popularity for his cloaked forwarding URL. My heart sank as I realized that yet another worthwhile
and accepted, valuable web protocol has been subverted,
perverted and is now being abused. Reciprocal linking is dead! Now just because one scammer has abused reciprocal links
and distorted the true purpose of this practice, does it
have to mean that everyone else will do this? No. But it
does mean that others will adopt the scam technique and
the value of links pages will drop dramatically because
webmasters will no longer trust the process. We can't. Scammers are a tight knit group that love to share their
scams and schemes with each other. Reciprocal linking is
definitely dead and this scam will inevitably go viral,
just as every other abuse and scheme before it have done.
Reciprocal links pages are as dead as FFA links pages. Google has already seen the writing on the wall and only
shows backlinks with a PageRank 4 or better. Webmasters
seeking reciprocal links have consequently adopted a new
strategy when seeking link partners. They breathlessly
announce that the page your link will go on is ranked at
PR4 at Google.
What's next? PageRank creep! Now that linking has been
perverted, Google will begin showing backlinks with PR5
and then PR6, etc. Reciprocal link partners will claim
that your link will be placed on a PR7 page and so on.
Google essentially negated PR1, PR2 and PR3 by showing
no backlinks with those ranks from their own index! So after a bit of agonizing over the state of the web,
thinking about how I can't even troll through the 2500
messages that are quarantined by my SpamFilter program
because I don't have time, I decided to end link swaps. Email used to work. FFA pages used to work. Reciprocal
links pages used to work. Free classified ads used to
work. What still works? Content works and I am reluctantly
going to insist on content from anyone who wants links
from my sites or client sites. I've got to like what
the contributor has to say and I've got to agree with
their article before I'll publish it and link back to
them from that article, press release or news. I've even drafted an email note to use as a template for
response to those requesting reciprocal links:
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Mike Banks Valentine is a Search Engine Optimization
Specialist practicing ethical SEO for Online businesses
http://SEOptimism.com
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