Reciprocal Linking

Reciprocal linking is considered by many people the most effective way to increase traffic to your website. You often get hits from the web sites that you have exchanged your links with, and reciprocal linking also helps boost your search engine rankings.

What is a reciprocal link?

A reciprocal link is a link to a website that carries a similar link back to your own website.

A reciprocal link is a common thread between you and another website owner. You both likely share similar websites and content, and you are o'kay with the possibility of a viewer leaving your site to take a look at your linking partner's site.

What a reciprocal link is not...

A reciprocal link is not a cure all! Many times webmasters have a ton of links. The problem is that many of those links are broken or out of date. I will share a resource to help you find those broken links in a minute. But first you need to find sites to link to!

Tip for Finding Quality Links

Google might not dominate the search engine world like it did last year, but it's still a big player and can account for a lot of your traffic. It's no secret that acquiring PageRank is a big part of doing well with Google. I've personally seen my own pages receive huge jumps in traffic after PageRank updates. By now, you probably know PageRank comes from the number of incoming links to your web site; the higher the PageRank of the incoming links, the more PageRank your site will receive.

The problem with link building campaigns is you rarely get out of them what you put in. You're doing pretty good if you get responses from one in four people you contact. In order to make things simpler, people often join traffic exchange programs, or simply post forms on their page and wait for link partners to come to them.

The problem with these methods is you often get offers from sites you don't particularly want to link with. Maybe they're selling something you'd rather not be associated with, or their site is brand-new and sloppily put together, and it's not going to be much of a boost to your PageRank. Now, I'm not saying you should never link to a new site, because today's PR-nothing could be tomorrow's PR 6 or 7. Rather, I just want to offer a tip to help you capitalize on your link hunting time.

Step 1: Do a Google search for your target keywords.

Step 2: Visit the highest ranking sites, and use Google Toolbar to check their back links.

Step 3: Ask for links from the sites that appear in the back links.

Simple, hunh? What this does for you is thus: gets you in contact with people who are willing to exchange links with sites in your keyword area, and perhaps more importantly, gets you in contact with sites that have a high enough PageRank to appear in Google's back links (typically, only PageRank 4 sites and above appear here).

This should help you find the links that can truly help you, and it should cut down on your wasted link hunting time. Now, don't you have some links to find?

The Google Sandbox Effect

In the age of fair competition you may find it hard to believe that a search engine may hinder the appearance of a new website. This is what is currently believed to be happening on more web servers today. Some programmers have viewed Google as uncomfortable to rank newer websites until they have proven their viability to exist for more than a period of "x" months. Thus the term "Sandbox Effect" applies to the idea that all new websites have their ratings placed in a holding tank until such time is deemed appropriate before a ranking can commence.

However the website is not hindered as much as the links that are reciprocated from other users. Newer links that are created are put on a "probationary" status until again they pickup in rank from other matured sites or placed directly by an ad campaign. The idea behind the hindrance is to prevent a fast ranking to occur on a new website. The usual holding period seems to be between 90 and 120 days before a site would start obtaining rank from reciprocal or back linking.

Some advice has been given to have companies you are going to reciprocate back add your link first to the website. This may help grandfather your site in, thus reducing the waiting time associated with "new" websites. People have noticed a 0 page rank when first signing up and receiving a bolstering 7 page ranking after 4 months. Why the delay? The fact is, that if people realized how easy it would be to get a high ranking, would that take away the credibility of the engine. It depends on whom you ask, but it does seem to be happening frequently to newer subscribers. Do not discontinue back linking, your rank will eventually appear.

The Testimonial Trick

One of the most popular methods of traffic generation is the link
exchange. Not only can they generate fairly targeted traffic from
other related web sites, the number of quality links to your site is
also a major factor determining your web site's ranking in major
search engines like Google.

The problem with link exchanges is that they require you to give a
reciprocal link in exchange for linking to your site. This inevitably
means that there will be a limit to the number of links you can
tastefully place on your site without compromising your layout,
content, and credibility. Links to other sites also provide extra
temptations for surfers to leave your site. Also, search engines place
more importance on the quality than the number of sites linking to
your web site. It is of course difficult for small web sites to
convince large, successful web sites to exchange links with them.

An incredibly simple, but little used so is to use testimonials to
gain a link on large successful web sites, WITHOUT having to place a
reciprocal link on our own site! No webmaster, no matter how
successful, can resist an honest, glowing compliment to their
creation. The trick is to write short, flattering testimonials for the
content, design, functions, products, services etc. of many web sites
and send it to them as a sincere "feedback".

Many webmasters will feel so flattered and want to publish these
"unsolicited" compliments to reinforce the credibility of their web
site and products. To make the testimonial credible, they must
naturally mention who it came from.

This would be your opportunity to request a link to your web site. At
a minimum, you should be able to get a link in the form of "yourname,
webmaster, yoursite.com ". This is really a beautifully simple, no
cost way of getting links in many high quality web sites.

Your Hard Work - Who Cares?

Junk mail. Promotional banner. Yet another Ad campaign !!!

We all get it. And it goes straight to the trash can and overlooked because of Banner Blindness. How do you make sure your marketing piece doesn't end up in the round file?

Give it the 'who cares' test. You have approximately five seconds to get your prospect's attention. Make those five seconds count!

1. Start with a grab 'em headline.

2. Follow with a transitional sub headline.

3. Make the body count.

4. Give them a reason to call -- now.

Your prospects don't care about your company. They care about themselves and how you can fix their problem, make them more comfortable, save them time or money, or relieve their stress.

What are your marketing pieces doing for your company?