Reciprocal Links Still Count! Imagine That

Matt Cutts said this, or Matt Cutts said that, I heard it so many times I tend to just ignore it. Granted, Matt is in a position to know more about how a search engine works than just about anyone else, and he does cavort a bit with SEO sorts from time to time, and perhaps he has learned some SEO through some kind of osmosis, but I don’t think Matt has ever actually done any hands-on SEO.

In that regards, being an SEO is a bit like being a truckdriver or an offshore oil field worker. You can read about it all you want, hang out at truckstops and interview truckdrivers, or hang out at a Houma, Louisiana, bar with roughnecks, but until you spend a few days with a tool in excess of ton in front of you powered by thousands of pounds of torque, and covered in oil, you just are not going to quite get it.

A month ago Matt wrote a post on his blog in which he commented on Andy Greenberg article about supplemental results being the equivalent of “Google Hell“. In his post, Matt reviews a site that is heavily involved in reciprocal linking. I say excessive because the site in question had 329 reciprocal link directory categories. I thought 80 categories to be excessive.

Anyway, Matt goes on to say,

As Google changes algorithms over time, excessive reciprocal links will probably carry less weight. That could also account for a site having more pages in supplemental results if excessive reciprocal links (or other link-building techniques) begin to be counted less.

Now, please note that

1. Matt is talking about “excessive reciprocal linking”, not traditional “reciprocal linking”.
2. Basically he’s saying “in the future excessive recriprocal linking will probably carry less weight.” Maybe is what he’s saying, “if excessive reciprocal links begin to be counted less.”

If and when Google stops counting reciprical links, it will make the headlines. It is unlikely you’ll miss this event if you follow SEO. In the meantime, happy linking.

Update: 2007/10/13
Here’s a post from another blog saying reciprocal linking is not dead.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2007 at 10:23 and is filed under SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.