Building up reciprocal links, backlinks, and interlinking… What does this mean to your blog, website, or business?

First off… I should tell you where I am coming from here. Each day we get a fair number of comments and requests asking for reciprocal links. Most of the time it is great. We love to help out others when we can.

We have a couple of individuals that have commented several times. The comments are warranted, valid, and honestly I appreciate and enjoy the conversations. These comments are an asset to us as well as to them. If it’s natural, looks good for both parties, and provides the basis for a relationship, then absolutely.. link away and if we like your information, site, etc. then we would love to share your link to the rest.

However, if you have a website or blog that is really not relevant one bit besides the fact that it is a blog, then the linking really does no good. Honestly, the majority of the time Search Engines will discount them as they are actually considered unnatural.

This also goes for interlinking between your own sites. Just because you own 100 websites does not mean you should be linking them all together. By doing so you risk losing all the benefits there along with the time it took you to add them.

For example, if you have a travel blog and it is linked to a beauty site for no other reason than just thinking.. link.. link.. link. Then it really does you no good.

So, how does it work?

Say you write a post on your travel blog about the importance of wearing sunblock found at the beauty store and include a link to them, and they in-turn write a post about the top travel places to show off your beauty and include a link to you, then it works! This is reciprocal and is much more natural in the eyes (or spiders eyes.. or what have you) of the Search Engines.

It becomes even more beneficial if you link to sites that compliment yours. Such as a travel site and an airline site. You both can provide benefit to your readers by offering one anothers information, at the same time creating natural links, and building a solid relationship.

So, first you look at that and say.. ok, but isn’t is still much easier to leave a post on someones site and hope they approve it to get the backlink, rather than ask them or hope for them to write a post about your site?

Well, it can be, however finding those websites took time, posting comments took time, and you may or may not get a natural quality backlink from it all.

So instead of trying that type of tactic and wasting time, why not contact the blog or website owner of a few sites that are relevant or complimentary to yours and ask them if they would post a review of your site, or perhaps publish an article on their site of yours, or even if they might just mention you!

Many people write up free little ebooks and ask if others might offer it up to their readers. This not only could get you traffic, but could also make you some money by adding affiliate links inside.

Really, what this boils down to, is relationship building. Perhaps, you start out with a few real comments or questions, emails, etc, and then move forward. Think of the targeted traffic you might get out of having one of your articles published on their site along with a link, rather than some comment or request for a backlink that you are not too sure will even get listed?

Just some food for thought the next you are out cruising for backlinks :)

ps.. sorry.. wasn’t the quickie I was going for… lol.

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