[jheg]

I have so far resisted submitting my site to other sites that will only work on a reciprocal basis as I have heard that they don't carry anywhere near as much weight and can sometimes have a detrimental effect.

Is this true and does anyone have any guesses as to how much weight you lose as a result - for example

Lets say my mortgage tutorial site is looking for links from estate agents. Will rec linking have half as much effect as one way links?

I don't want a site littered with links to other sites well placed or not as it would almost act as an endorsement to the sites i'd be linking to and I'd lose the appearance of independence.

[neil0wen]

The extent of how valuable a reciprocal link compares to a one way link is not documented by Google. You may get people giving a guess on what they believe down to their own experience.

What I would say is that Google expects a certain amount of reciprocal linking as this would naturally occur between many websites anyway. Taking this into account, I would suggest that a few reciprocal links would be of some significant value. However I would be very selective and only choose websites that will benefit your business!

[Disclosure: the massive link below leads to a directory which operates via reciprocal linking. - RD]

This post has been edited by Renaissance-Design: 11 November 2011 - 04:57 PM
Reason for edit: Added disclosure

[jheg]

neil0wen, on 11 November 2011 - 04:54 PM, said:

The extent of how valuable a reciprocal link compares to a one way link is not documented by Google. You may get people giving a guess on what they believe down to their own experience.

What I would say is that Google expects a certain amount of reciprocal linking as this would naturally occur between many websites anyway. Taking this into account, I would suggest that a few reciprocal links would be of some significant value. However I would be very selective and only choose websites that will benefit your business!

[Disclosure: the massive link below leads to a directory which operates via reciprocal linking. - RD]

Thats kind of what I thought too, Thanks Neil

[amritrr]

I am also of a similar opinion. One way links are definitely the best however, there is no evidence that link exchange will harm your rankings in any way, either. I think it is perfectly safe to exchange links with quality sites.

[neil0wen]

Yes thank you Renaissance-Design. The directory does ask for support in order to assist designers. As you can see, carefully done, reciprocal linking has benefited the directory.

I have been very lucky to get so much support, especially for from forum members, some of which include administrators!

[handatravel]

if reciprocal links are from the niche & high pr websites then it is worth backlinks