: Should Google Deter Reciprocal Linking?
Yes, in my opinion. Why? Well, the fact is reciprocal linking adds little, if any, value to the relevancy of search results.
Five years ago few people exchanged links. Now virtually everyone is exchanging links because they've been told they need to get other sites to link to theirs in order to get higher search engine rankings.
It all started when people realized that Google generally ranks web pages with incoming links higher than those without. The whole Google PageRank system works on the principle that a link to a web page is a "vote" for the page. In an ideal world that would work. Sadly the system has been abused with web sites "voting" for each others site.
Even though I am a professional search engine optimizer, I'm not fond of the practice of reciprocal linking, and have rarely used it. I believe that site creators should link to content that adds value to their content, not solely to improve rankings.
Think of it this way. Which would you trust more? A recommendation where the person gets a payback, or one where they don't (all things being equal)?
So how can a search engine, such as Google, deter reciprocal linking? I think the answer is simple--give one way links a much greater importance in the ranking algorithms than sites with two way links.
The difference could be made so great that it would make reciprocal linking a waste of time. In fact, I would propose giving negative points to sites that have a disproportionate number of two-way links.
What about web directories you may ask? Well, you would obviously exclude web sites that are designed to link to other sites. Building a list of such sites wouldn't be too difficult either. You could probably find most of them in the Open Directory index.
Aren't the search engines already using it? Possibly, but not in the manner I propose. AltaVista do publicly state that they ignore links only pages.
Is this idea feasible? Absolutely! With all the smart PhDs they have at Google, this would be a walk in the park for them I think.
There's a long way to go to building the perfect search engine. Let's hope we get there sooner than later.
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