*If you were getting crawled more before and you’re trading a bunch of reciprocal links, don’t be surprised if the new crawler has different crawl priorities and doesn’t crawl as much*.

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/type/googleseo/

At first sight, the statement would have spooked many in the SEO industry. But re-reading the stuff you should see that only the crawling is the affected factor. Something we have seen before like for instance, non-static database URLs: Sites with URLs that have 'question mark' and 'equal to' were not given crawling preference but were they penalised for that? They still ranked, didn't they?

Matt states:
"This time, I’m seeing links to mortgages sites, credit card sites, and exercise equipment. I think this is covered by the same guidance as above; if you were getting crawled more before and you’re trading a bunch of reciprocal links, don’t be surprised if the new crawler has different crawl priorities and doesn’t crawl as much."

Now, we must take into consideration, a "real estate" state he is pointing the finger at. That site was exchanging links with irrelevant sites (what the hell is a ring-tone site doing with a real estate site?)

The real estate site in question, is linking to more distal than proximal themes. I think Matt is trying to tell us irrelevant site-linkage will be easily detected. When can one do "excessive linking"? Why, only when he exchanges links with every site he comes across.

If you stuck to your theme it wouldn't be excessive linking until or otherwise the competition is high. Okay, let me demonstrate:

Assuming there is a term “buy widgets”, representing a medium-sized market. Some of the top-ranking sites would have link-exchanges done. But the one that will rank is the one that overtaken others in getting one-way links from other relevant sources, not necessarily directories. The site ranking number one will also have done link exchanges but if it has one-way links more than its competitors it's destined to rank high.

Here is a definite pattern in future search rankings, for instance:

Site ranking one - 100 one-way links + 36 reciprocals
Site ranking two - 45 one-way links + 50 reciprocals
" " three - 2 one-way links + 150 reciprocals
“ “ four - 0 one-way links + 80 reciprocals

This is how sites are going to get ranked. Mind you though even the one-way link must come from source that is thematic.

What will happen when it comes to ranking totally commercial sites like the real estate sites that provide no information other than buying info?
In this case, we have to give the benefit of the doubt that "in the land of the blind the one-eyed is the Jack."

So for any site wanting to rank high, look for one-way links rather than directly plunging into reciprocal linking.

Regards,
Dilip Samuel

I think there is a ratio. Matt said "a bunch". So relevant reciprocal linking should be ok, whereas abusive one should become inefficient or counter-productive. As long as a thing is made with the user in mind, it is ok. IMHO of course.

*But re-reading the stuff you should see that only the crawling is the affected factor.*

I suspect you may well be being somewhat optimistic there Dilip ;-)

http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=11624

*So relevant reciprocal linking should be ok*

Not sure about that, it may make them less patently obvious than Fish oils, but he does bang on about recips more than I've ever read before....

Well we should hear a fair amount of gnashing and wailing from the hotel/vacation/real estate sectors if G ever comes down hard or recips, I'll make sure to keep an ear out....

I think you will find the amount you can get away with reciprocals is also based on age of the domain, PR and the amount of one way inbound links to a site (all of which are somewhat related). So a newer site need be far more careful than sites from the mid 90's. I also think different industries have totally different levels of accepted reciprocal %ages. But I digress (heh, for a change..)

I think of the footprint left by the site - does it look like a reciprocal happy seo that is using software, or does it look like a quality site attracting one way inbound links (however that may be)?

Just mix it up and be sure to attract one way inbounds as well as reciprocals, especially on a new site. I don't actually do recips at all for years now, unless they have something special to offer.

It make sense G has gone after this before and that they will continue to until they have nice themed sets of related links. It will make the index more robust overall which is cool for some site owners.

Well we should hear a fair amount of gnashing and wailing from the hotel/vacation/real estate sectors if G ever comes down hard or recips, I'll make sure to keep an ear out....

I bet, it couldn't happen to nicer bunch of webmasters/seo's. I don't know if you will need to keep your ear out :p I can hear them already.

I think you will find the amount you can get away with reciprocals is also based on age of the domain, PR and the amount of one way inbound links to a site (all of which are somewhat related). So a newer site need be far more careful than sites from the mid 90's. I also think different industries have totally different levels of accepted reciprocal %ages. But I digress (heh, for a change..)


Yes I agree with this. Older sites which have been at the top of Google for ages often have a large number of reciprocal links. It is like they get trusted by Google after being online for a long time and have a decent number of links/good PR over this timeframe.