Reciprocal sitewide links

[designasp]

Hi

Due to some internal dealings my client now has the opportunity to have a reciprocal link exchange with a top site in the UK. They have agreed to have link to my client's site in the left hand navigation.

Their website has 5000 pages. Although it looks like a great way to boost link popularity, I think it may be looked upon unfavourably by google as it is too many links too quick.

Does anyone have any idea about the issues related to this? With jagger updates this might get even worse, is that correct?

Thanks for your time.

[Marcia]

Just to be precise, will the reciprocal links back also be running sitewide? And how close are the sites topically? Also - are there other outbound sitewides on either of the sites, and if so, are they on or off topic?

[sootledir]

The fact it's in the actual navigation of their site should be very helpful.

[Rynert]

Would Google penalise for 5000 links from a single domain, or would it simple ignore them?

This seems another case of worrying about being 'penalised' by doing something that is perfectly accpetable, indeed before Google, and other search engines, would be consider a great bit of promotion.

[David Wallace]

I doubt they'd penalize for them but rather they very likely already have built into their algorithm not to give as much weight to site wide links a opposed to a link here, a link there.

I have a few scenarios of site wide links and have not been penalized. I just don't feel Google gives as much weight all those site wide links as opposed to if I had the same number of “quality” links on different sites.

[glengara]

Accident waiting to happen, IMO ;-)

[DarkMatter]

answers to Marcia's questions are key in making this decision, but my gut instinct is that this is overkill and definitely might get flagged. What's more, do you really need 5K links from this site? just get well positioned links on the pages that are most relevant to your topic, where the visitors might actually find the link useful.

[designasp]

Originally Posted by Marcia

Just to be precise, will the reciprocal links back also be running sitewide? And how close are the sites topically? Also - are there other outbound sitewides on either of the sites, and if so, are they on or off topic?

Hi Marcia

Thanks for replying everyone.

All links will be sitewide. So left hand nav for both sites will have links to the other site. Topically both sites are similar except for the country. Neither site has other outbound sitewide links.

Even with section wide exchange, it will be 50 links in one go. But they will be links which are on the same topic.

cheers

[PerformanceSEO]

Site wide links can be either effective or dangerous depending on the age of the domain and the historical trend of incoming links.

A brand new site (less than 1 year) who has just received over 50,000 links when they started with 0 will usually be put in the "sandbox" for Google...and Yahoo as well.

The older the site, the better the effect of those links. And regardless make sure the site is relevant.

[neatorama]

You'd have to weigh the potential of a penalty against the potential of increased traffic due to the links.

I'd say go for it - it's not every day that you get the opportunity to gain exposure through another website linking yours through its nav. Remember that SE algo change all the time, and even without this linking your website may drop in rankings anyhow.

[AccuraCast]

One of our clients provides sitewide links to their registration page on their governing body's website. They tell me that most of their competitors do the same, mostly because their industry - something to do with immigration and naturalization - relies on validation by this governing body.

If Google were to penalize sites that receive sitewide links, this government body's website would have sunk by now, since almost all the links they receive are part of sitewide links from the corporations it oversees and regulates.

However, the government body's site is up, running, and ranking #1 for the relevant terms. Obviously the sitewide links dont hurt it. They probably dont help it as much as few links from each site might have, but they're still keeping the site at #1.

[Marcia]

I don't believe it's so much a penalty as some links not counting (if they're identified) - which shouldn't matter if there's decent traffic coming and going.

Yahoo might be a different story, it's still a bit of a mystery about them.

[PerformanceSEO]

Accura, again it all depends on the age of the domain.

new websites WILL be penalized for gaining an "unnatural" amount of links in a short amount of time.

older domains won't be penalized, but simply won't benefit from the site-wide links unless they are relevant.

[Marcia]

However, the government body's site is up, running, and ranking #1 for the relevant terms. Obviously the sitewide links dont hurt it.

It's *normal" for that particular type of site then. That isn't the prototype for the average type of site we'd be discussing here, any more than Microsoft or Apple being linked to sitewide would be the same as Jack's Widget Supply - even if Jack has a chain of small stores throughout the midwest.

That's why it's such a fallacy when people try to use SearchEngineWatch or About.com as illustrations to make a point - it's apples and oranges.

[glengara]

*The fact it's in the actual navigation of their site should be very helpful.*

More risky, I'd say ;-)

You'd have to wonder what kind of site is happy to include 3rd party links in their nav....

[Melwood]

Google et al. provide their search boxes to be used on any site.

Sometimes these search boxes appear in footers - and hence sitewide.

If 2 complimentary sites (hotel site and city guide site for example) had similar functions and offered each other their search boxes - should this be punished? Is the root domain the issue?

Would a dynamic change to the anchor text or the destination page make a difference here? So instead of generic, blanket links all over the place - specific deep-links to specific content pages - even though the root domain would remain the same.

Less risky, potentially - but still a tough call.

I would concur that the previous points about age of site, authority of site, relevancy etc are all taken into some consideration.