Reciprocal links are a type of link exchange between relevant website properties where each one places an outbound link on one of their web pages that points to the other’s web page.
The idea behind reciprocal linking is to share the exchange of targeted traffic in an attempt to enhance “link popularity,” a major factor in search engine ranking algorithms. There are several legitimate ways available to acquire relevant, high quality and already “popular” ‘inbound links’ from a variety of sources. Reciprocal linking is just one of the ways and is an acceptable practice.
Be aware that not all reciprocal linking is acceptable. Legitimacy, relevance and quality are major factors when selecting link exchanges. There are websites known as “link farms” that engage in reciprocal linking; however, they do not offer anything at all to the end-user but instead trap the person in a web of endless links. This type of linking is considered “Black Hat SEO” and can result in serious penalties being imposed by the search engines, including but not limited to banning your web pages forever. See ‘Inbound Linking,’ ‘Google PageRank™,’ and ‘Link Popularity’ for more information.
