3 way link exchange is better than 2 way link exchange?

[expedient]

As you know, Getting Inbound or One-way Links is one of the most important factors in success of any website. Reciprocal links are outdated, as Search Engines do not consider them anymore.Let me know what do you thinking?

Regards,
Murlai

[The Old Sarge]

Reciprocal links are outdated, as Search Engines do not consider them anymore.

Where did you hear/read this? One-way links indeed rate higher, but the major SEs do not, to my knowledge, simply ignore reciprocal links. In fact, I get some pretty good SERPs and Page Rank for some of the pages on one of my sites based 100% on the reciprocal links those pages contain.

[The Old Sarge]

reciprocal links is not friend for google...

How so? On what do you base that claim?

[Duke]

I've heard time and time again that reciprocal links no longer carry the value they once did (can't confirm it though) however, I'd have to bet there's more value in a relevant reciprocal link exchange than just any incoming link.

A link be it reciprocal or one way is still a vote for your site so I'd be really surprised if the SE's discounted them fully. That said, if you engage in just any reciprocal link exchange just for the incoming links then you may indeed see your site suffer overall.

This of course is nothing new however.

[The Old Sarge]

... if you engage in just any reciprocal link exchange just for the incoming links then you may indeed see your site suffer overall.

Agreed! IMO, a lot of folks know what the three types of links are but understand very little about how the major SEs actually treat links of any kind. Not all reciprocal links are the same.

If, for example, the SEs punish reciprocal links, how do they know the links were arranged by the webmasters and did not just happen? If the Smithsonian Institution decides to publish a link to the National Geographic Society because both happen to have related material, and the NGS decides to link to the Smithsonian for the same reason, but neither knows (or even cares) that the other did it ... will they be punished for reciprocal linking?

See what I mean?

I think a lot of people expect way too much and when they don't get it, they blame some make believe boogy man. Or they engage in link farming and post links in the proverbial Bad Neighborhoods and then blame reciprocal linking. It's like cutting off your foot because your head hurts.

[Phil Staff]

they blame some make believe boogy man

LOL - perfect!

[JoshuaGaler]

Well as per my knowledge I don't think this is correct or true fact. The one way, two way and three way linking have their own importance. Until there is a search engine this will never vanished. After all there should be something that google can crawl and get a ethical link.

[Raja25]

what i think is Three way link exchange is better than two way link exchange .

Google puts more credits on three way link exchange.

[Phil Staff]

Raja25 - Can you prove that Google places more credits on 3 way link exchanges?

We have found that 99% of 3 way exchanges always have one site that is total garbage and not even relevant to the other two sites. We have also found that 99% of 3 way exchanges involve one site with no real content other than the pages that they intend to place your link on.

3 way linking is considered gamesmanship by the SE's and many webmasters and actually can get you punished by the search engines if you are not careful to scrutinize all the sites involved.

Google is no fool. If your site has only incoming links and no outgoing links they will figure out that you are somehow cheating. They know your industry better than you do and they know the average of incoming and outgoing links for all sites in your genre.

If your industry has an average of 30% incoming links and 70% outgoing links but your site has 100% incoming links and 0% outgoing links it will attract the wrong kind of attention from the SE's.

There can be a place for 3 way links but in reality the only reason you would do a three way link exchange is to try to trick the search engines.

Check out our article on 3 way exchanges here: http://linkpartners.com/article_three_way_linking.html

Phil Staff

[kevenlee]

Hi expedient,

I agree with you on that topic three way and one way link building is good for the SEO. Google not emphasizing on the Two way link building because Google think that there should be an agreement between webmasters to exchange links. from the current SEO point of way one way and three way link building is the most important.

[The Old Sarge]

Google not emphasizing on the Two way link building because Google think that there should be an agreement between webmasters to exchange links. from the current SEO point of way one way and three way link building is the most important.

What evidence do you have to support these conclusions?

[bukth]

I guess it always comes back to relevance really. Logic dictates that if all sites have the same relevance and authority in your niche, then the non-recip link would probably have more benefit than the recip. That's not to say the reciprocal link won't give any benefit.

The problem, as I think Phil Staff pointed it, is most of the time the emails that I get offering three way link exchanges usually involve linking to a site that is relevant (good for them) but a link back from a completely worthless site (bad for you).

Most of our reciprocal links are gained via email, on request, and I'll generally agree to the exchange if I feel both sites are well enough related to each other, but not directly competing. Any that are just irrelevant, and/or matching the three way linking profile described above, are trashed.

I only really physically chase reciprocals if I stumble upon pages that I feel could offer real linking benefit, and sometimes for pages that already link to competitors ;)

[Phil Staff]

I only really physically chase reciprocals if I stumble upon pages that I feel could offer real linking benefit, and sometimes for pages that already link to competitors ;)
Wise words that I hope will be heard all across this forum!

[The Old Sarge]

I'll add an "AMEN!" to that also.

[luckylook3]

one way link exchange is better because it looks more natural to the search engines

[mo0on]

Both are ways of building links but the 3 way or one way link is good since it's not obvious that webmasters have mutual agreement of posting each others links. With the 3 way, it's just like a website is referring one link naturally.

[sadmemories20]

I'd have to bet there's more value in a relevant reciprocal link exchange than just any incoming link.

[Phil Staff]

one way link exchange is better because it looks more natural to the search engines

That logic just doesn't work luckylook. A one-way link only gives your site credit from that direction. People have a tendency to forget that if you link back to that site and it is relevant to your user you will get even more credit and that looks even more natural.

One way link exchange is not better than two way link exchanges. IMO a one-way link exchange is only 1/2 as valuable. With a one way link you are only getting credit for the link and not the actual content of the link. With a two-way (reciprocal link) you are getting credit for the content of the link on your site.

Updated relevant content on your site is the most important thing. Whether it be adding link partners to your site, adding a blog to your site or just plain updating every page so you stay away from the dreaded 304 Not Modified Code.