What are Reciprocal Links? Are they good or bad for your SEO?

What are Reciprocal Links?

Reciprocal links occur when two or more parties agree to link to each other on their sites.

It is an exchange between site owners, with each one essentially saying to the other, “link to me, and I’ll link to you.”

These links connect one party’s page or resource to another’s in exchange for a link back on a website or guest post.

The intention behind this exchange of links is often to benefit each respective site owner’s SEO and site authority.

While it may sound beneficial to both parties, reciprocal links often result in a raised eyebrow by skeptics.

It can all come across as a deceptive plan, with the intent to deceive consumers that a relationship exists when it may not.

Yet, don’t discount them altogether just yet. Not all reciprocal links are bad.

Do Reciprocal Links Benefit Your SEO Strategy?

Link building can play an essential role in your overall SEO strategy. When used in the right way, even reciprocal links can be beneficial.

The goal, however, is to ensure you are enhancing the customer’s experience while on your website.

Here are the benefits of reciprocal links to your SEO strategy.

Enhances the Customer or Potential Customer Experience

Reciprocal linking can enhance the customer experience on your website.

As a result, the linking can lead to higher engagement with your content, which will get you noticed by search engine algorithms.

Positions You as a Trusted Authority

Reciprocal links can help establish you and your website as a trusted authority.

By providing customers and potential customers with access to more related resources, it shows that you understand them and their problems and are confident enough in what you offer to send them to other sources for information.

Search engine algorithms recognize this, and as a result, you can move up in SERP results.

Increases Website Traffic

Links can increase your website traffic, bringing in potential customers who may not already be aware of what you have to offer.

This increase in website traffic is another factor that alerts search engines that you are receiving increasing attention, pushing you up on the list of search page results.

However, while external links on your website can be beneficial to your SEO, they are not the driving force behind SERP rankings.

You can use them to benefit customers and potential customers, and this, in turn, can lead to higher engagement with your brand, which will have a more positive effect on SEO.

Can Reciprocal Links Be Bad for Your SEO?

While reciprocal links can be beneficial, they also come with risks, making them bad for your SEO under specific circumstances.

Of all the types of linking techniques, reciprocal linking is the one with the highest risk of being abused.

When used solely to improve SEO, with no relationship involved, the result is often spammy and bothersome to consumers who try to follow the links.

Also, excessive use of reciprocal linking will negatively affect your SEO.

Carelessly exchanging links can be bad for your SEO, and your site authority, in the following ways.

Penalization of Your Website by Google

Reciprocal links, when carelessly added, can cause your website to be penalized by Google because they go against the search engine’s documented guidelines.

According to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, reciprocal links that are in place to attempt to manipulate search results will be met with swift penalties.

This is a big deal, so let’s spend a little time here,

Google’s Webmaster Guidelines specially address link schemes and link exchanges, with the goal of gaming PageRank or search result rankings.

What might a penalty look like in this type of situation? There are two potential penalties, including:

Downgrading your site in search results.

De-indexing your website (for the more series cases).

Penalties and the resulting negative impact on SEO can occur due to the following actions:

The buying and selling of links that pass PageRank.

Excessive reciprocal linking.

Creating partner pages containing lower-quality content for cross-linking purposes only.

Automating the process to generate backlinks to your site (e.g., using automation services for link acquisition).

Risk of Losing Search Engine Trust

With poorly positioned reciprocal links, you are at risk of losing the trust of search engines.

This loss of trust can come about in a few definable ways, including:

You include on your website numerous one-to-one links.

The anchor text of your links is continually suspicious or wholly unrelated to your content.

Decrease In Website Authority and SERP Rankings

Linking to external sites that are not in some way relevant to your customers or content can lead to dramatic decreases in website authority and SERP rankings.

The way to prevent this is by always ensuring that the content you link to in a reciprocal agreement is relevant.

While the other site doesn’t always necessarily need to be a high-authority site, the more often it is, the less it can lower your site authority or rankings.

Potential for Increasing Your Competition’s SEO Not Yours

While reciprocal linking needs to be with a site offering a similar theme or content, you will need to avoid linking to a competing site.

It’s understandable that a similar site may use the same keywords or phrases as your website, but more often than not, linking to them will not garnish a reciprocated link back.

You’ll only be boosting the competition’s SEO, not yours.

Be sure to weigh all of these risks carefully when considering including reciprocal links in your SEO strategy. Overlooking even one of them can wreak havoc on your search engine optimization plans.

Reciprocal Links Best Practices: How to Use Them

Although using reciprocal links may seem like a gamble at times, there are ways you can use them to your benefit.

Follow these best practices to ensure you are using them correctly, and watch as they potentially lead to a boost in your SEO.

1. Make Sure the Link is to Relevant Content

For every link you consider, first, ask the following questions:

Is this link contextually relevant?

Would the reciprocal link be a natural fit for us?

Will it mesh with our content marketing strategy in some beneficial way?

The answer to these questions should always be a resounding YES.

By linking to higher-quality sites that are in some way relevant to your particular content will not only enhance your customer’s experience but also increase engagement and SEO.

On the other hand, linking to irrelevant content will make you look bad to your customers and potential customers.

2. Ensure the Linking Content Adds Value

Help your readers resolve a problem or learn more by linking to content that in some way adds more value for them.

In other words, avoid focusing on just your SEO and SERP rankings and instead focus on the consumer and how to provide real value with quality content on another site.

Try putting yourself in their shoes and ascertain what experiences will help them the most. 

Empathetic marketing techniques can help you in this regard, providing clues as to what content will be valuable to your customers.

By linking to high-quality content, you receive the additional benefit of becoming a trusted resource.

If you receive a reciprocal link in return, that is a bonus and continues to position you as a trusted source of information.

3. Check SEO Metrics of Linking Site

To increase the effectiveness of your reciprocal linking and positively impact your SEO, check the SEO metrics of the other site.

If you find good SEO metrics, that site is a high-authority website, and linking with them can benefit you.

Consider using free online tools such as Free Backlink Checker or start with a free trial of Monitor Backlinks to locate and filter sites to prioritize depending on certain SEO factors.

Determine what will be most important to you, such as those sites with high domain authority or another such factor that will show up in these metrics.

4. Build Authentic Relationships

The key to successful reciprocal links is the building of authentic relationships as the first step.

You can begin the relationship-building process by linking to another source with no expectation of anything in return.

You choose to link to the site because they offer relevant content that will be of value to your readers.

At some point, the other site may link back to you, solidifying an authentic relationship.

5. Reach out to Bloggers and Influences

Blogger and influencer outreach is another strategy to incorporate into your reciprocal linking activities.

Maintain the intention of building a relationship, and adding value for your readers and not simply generating backlinks.

6. Identify Ways to Build Backlink Potential

Reexamine your digital marketing strategy and identify more ways to build backlink potential. This can eventually lead to reciprocal linking.

Build these backlinks through content promotion, guest blogging, being a podcast guest, and arranging panels to discuss a particular topic.

7. Avoid Linking to Competitor Sites

When reciprocal linking is not well-thought-out, it can lead to competitors ranking higher in search results thanks to your actions.

Always confirm that who you are linking to is not a direct competitor. Avoid linking to the same target keywords.

If you do link to them, rarely will you receive a reciprocal link. Instead, you are helping drive their website traffic up and pushing them up in search engine rankings.

8. Evaluate Reciprocal Link Requests

At some point, you will likely begin receiving reciprocal link requests.

Before agreeing, always evaluate these requests and how they can affect your SEO and site authority.

Determine the following before you agree to the reciprocal linking.

Is it a link scheme?

Is it a natural fit for our business?

Will it offer value to our customers or potential customers?

Can this external link relationship lead to an increase in website traffic?

Do we want Google to associate us with this other site?

If you determine the relationship will be mutually beneficial, then go for it.