Introduction

Reciprocal links form a vital part of any website promotion effort. You have created great content, or offer a superb product or service -- and now, you want people to know about it.

The Web is only as useful as the sum of its links, as without links it is just a disparate collection of pages. Links are the glue behind the Web. To ensure that your page has the visibility it deserves, you will need other sites to point to yours.

What is a reciprocal link?

A reciprocal link is a usually a text link to a site that, somewhere in its pages, carries a similar text link to your own site.

A reciprocal link is a commitment. This link basically says "The site at the other end of this link feels that my site is important enough to link to, and I feel that their site is important enough that I am willing to let visitors leave my site via this link."

A reciprocal link involves an element of trust. Few Webmasters have the time or patience to constantly monitor the sites that link back to them, so you are trusting the other site to maintain the link on their site, and not bury it under other information or delete it during a site upgrade.

My view is that it is healthy for sites to offer links to competitors. Offline, people rarely make significant purchases before browsing a few alternatives. So by providing choice, you are indirectly stimulating people to buy more. And since your link is also on your competitor's site [these are reciprocal links, remember!] your own sales may see a boost from visitors coming from the competing site. These are what I would term "equivalent" links.

Shannon Lebel
http://www.readysetglo.com
Glow Paint Specialists