Reciprocal Link Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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What is reciprocal linking and how does it work?

The reciprocal linking process is fairly simple:

• You place links to relevant sites on your website.
• In return, those other relevant sites link back to you.

For a handful of links, reciprocal linking is easy to do, and it takes little oversight or forethought. However, a limited number of links can only provide limited benefit. The true benefit of reciprocal linking takes place when links are sought with hundreds (and even thousands) of other websites.

Will reciprocal linking improve my site traffic?

Reciprocal linking can improve your website traffic, but not the way that you might expect. As you gain relevant links partnerships, your search engine ranking will tend to improve. Since the majority of website traffic comes from search engines, you can think of your link building campaign as a marketing investment.

Note that reciprocal linking is not a guarantee of search engine rank or position. If you are looking for guaranteed search engine placement, please consider Managed Pay-per-click.

What is a relevant link?

A relevant link is a link to a website that shares your topic of interest. For instance, home furnishings, real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and title companies are relevant to each other because they share similar themes or topics. Jewelry sites or say, auto parts, for example are not relevant to real estate.

Will you link me to my competitor's websites?

No. We personally review each link prospect to ensure that it makes good business sense for our customer.

Do I have to have a link directory on my website?

Yes. There are a few requirements when reciprocating with other relevant sites. Posting a directory is one such rule. Another is that you should link from your home page to your directory page. When you exchange links with others, they want to know where their link resides on your website. A directory is the most efficient way to organize your reciprocal links.

Can I add links to this new directory myself?

No. You can post links in the Links section of your Control Panel and they will be displayed on your Helpful Links page. The reciprocal link directory is separate from the Helpful links and is managed by a team of specialists.

How long does it take to experience positive results from link building?

Success depend on several factors. The most important success factor may be how entrenched your competition is in your market. If you are in a relatively sparse area, you could rank very well in a short period of time. Agents in major metropolitan areas typically compete with other websites that have already established strong link popularity. In this case, a long and determined link building campaign may be necessary. Click here to ask about your market.

I have heard that Advanced Access sites and others have been penalized for reciprocal linking. Is that true?

There are instances where real estate agent websites all hosted by the same large company have run afoul of major search engines. This is because the providers encouraged their agent customers to link to each other, forming a giant in-house network of links, all on a single server. This practice is sometimes referred to as a "link farm" and is frowned upon by search engines. We do not participate in internal linking for this reason. We also isolate each linking building customer on a dedicated IP address. Our customers' link campaigns are carefully managed to avoid linking between AgentWebsite customers.

Should I only link with a site that has a minimum Google PageRank™?

PageRank is a proprietary number between one and ten, assigned by Google to every page that Google indexes. It really doesn’t mean much, and occasionally incites controversy. Even the founder of Google's Webmaster Central Vanessa Fox cautions those who pay too much attention to its importance.

Your reciprocal link partners should meet the following criteria:

1. The content of the site is relevant to yours.
2. The other site is a legitimate site with quality content.
3. The other site is indexed in the major search engines.
4. The other site publicly offers to reciprocate.

In general, if a website meets the four criteria listed above, it is worth linking to.

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