Reciprocal linking

Reciprocal linking continues to be one of the best ways of gaining topic related backlinks to your website. Reciprocal linking is the process of website A linking to website B, and website B linking to website A. Although reciprocal links are less value able today than in the past, they are still important.

Reciprocal linking today

At the time of writing this (April 2007) reciprocal linking is an effective way of gaining backlinks with websites with topics related to your own. One-way links from topic related websites are ideal, but reciprocal links are still value able. Search engines such as Google have reduced the value of reciprocal links with topic related websites. However, reciprocal links with non-topic related websites can attract a penalty now, so you are advised to avoid these.

Reciprocal linking in the past

When SEO first became a boom industry, SEO's would look to gain backlinks from any source. Many exchanged links with any website they could find, even ones with a topic that was not related to their own. Previously, exchanging links with websites with a different topic to your own was a good idea, as all of the links counted. Today however, you should only reciprocate links with topic related websites.

3-way linking

Reciprocal linking is also known as 2-way linking, as the links are exchanged in 2 directions. When Google announced that they were reducing the value of 2-way links, many SEO's set about gaining 3-way links. 3-way linking is where three different websites swap links, in the hope that search engines do not reduce the value of the links. Website A would like to website B, website B would like to website C, and website C would like back to website A, completing the circle. Matt Cutts, who runs Google's most monitored blog, says that Google are well aware of all 3-way linking schemes, and they are also much devalued.

Summary

Reciprocal linking with websites with topics related to your own is still a good way of gaining backlinks. Don't swap links with unrelated websites, and don't try 3-way linking, it isn't worth the bother.