No, it’s not a general question for all and sundry. Obviously,
there are many who would want to link to a Home Business or
Affiliate program related website and for good reason. They
would be helping their Page Rank, if that’s important any more
however, more to the point, they would be improving their
chances of a better ranking in the SERPs (Search Engine Results
Pages). But yes, you guessed it, THERE IS A PROVISO. A very
important one, that so many people engaged in reciprocal linking
programs just don’t seem to be able to get their heads around… I
must confess, I have written about this same subject, just on
twelve months ago, I think it was. My experience during the time
since would suggest that I may as well have been writing fairy
stories, for all the good it did. I get, and this is no
exaggeration, at least a dozen requests EVERY day from people
wishing to link with my (currently seven) Home Business or
Affiliate related sites, who have websites that have absolutely
NOTHING in common in any way with either topic, or in the case
of Affiliate content websites I have, nothing to do with the
subject matter or product/s concerned. The majority of these
requests, for some reason, seem to come from
‘poker/casino/gambling’ websites and those concerning
‘travel/holidays’. Why is it that the people requesting these
links don’t understand that they are, in fact, irreparably
damaging their websites and possibly harming their chances of a
decent showing in the SERPs? (Not that all those with these
types of websites practice this type of ‘free for all’ linking).
Why can’t they understand that Google the devisors of the PR and
the Search Engine with whom most are concentrating on scoring a
good ranking, quite clearly explain that “…links from RELEVANT
websites are the only kind of link that is likely to improve
your SE rankings”. They also go on to say that “using any kind
of mass linking program or ‘free for all’ method of linking is
more likely to damage your rankings”. While it’s true that your
PR will probably increase with the amount of ‘raw’ links to your
website, those links that are from websites of non-relevant
topics will NOT serve to improve your ranking in the SERPs.
Where the PR is calculated simply from the number of links, the
algorithm used to come up with the SERPs definitely includes
more complex data including an analysis of the content of the
websites from which incoming links come, not just the text of
the link. The only advantage I know of, that PR alone will give
you is a better chance of obtaining reciprocal links from other
websites. Certainly, a far better way to obtain links is to
publish good quality articles about the topic of your website,
which of course will be picked up, by and large, by websites
looking for good content of the same subject matter. This will
also serve to give you ‘one way’ incoming links, which although
Google don’t appear to mention in their pages, are widely
understood to be of more value than ‘reciprocal links’. Apart
from the reasons I’ve mentioned above, there is also the amount
of work involved in trying to do the right thing by answering
these pointless requests for links. I must say, it’s very
annoying given the time involved, which could be better spent by
all parties doing more constructive things. I have often
lamented the irreparable damage that mass linking programs have
done to many websites. After all, there is virtually no chance
of getting the links that are in place from non-relevant
websites removed. It would be a mammoth task. The types of link
building program that collect links from anyone willing to
complete the form on your website and place your link on theirs,
have turned a number of websites into mini directories, which
certainly won’t help their rankings in the SERPs. My advice to
anyone, either new or an old hand is to join one of the
reciprocal linking co-operatives like Linkmarket.net, in which
you are able to approve links from sites of YOUR choosing and
request links from sites with the same content and subject
matter. After all, links of the same content as your website are
the most likely to interest your visitors and THAT is the
primary basis of linking, to offer worthwhile information and
assistance to your patrons. Incidentally, that’s what Google and
the other SEs are primarily concerned with, sites that are of
value to THEIR patrons and they will only offer you as a choice
if they feel you have the same goal in mind. I’ve been told that
when I do anything designed to improve my rankings, to ask
myself a simple question, “would I do this if there were no
Search Engines?” If the answer is no, then it probably won’t
benefit my visitors and will be a waste of time as far as my SE
rankings are concerned.