RealTown's RealTalk

Dirk,

Trust me, I know about celebrity SEO gurus but there are a few with known results that I try to follow when time permits.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, could you provide a couple of links to sites that have over a thousand links? I'd just like to see how they set it up.

By the way, the Comment Assistant sounds like a great product. It's impossible to keep up with so many feeds and figure out where you left off. I use beta.bloglines.com but I believe it's intended more for reading than posting. It's not very intuitive either.

The only thing I know for sure about SEO is that there are no absolutes. If some people make reciprocal linking work, I think that's fine. But, at this point, I think it's something that should be done by someone with a track record of making it work with no repercussions.

Prior to the Big Daddy Google update that started at the end of 2005, reciprocal linking was a great tool for everyone - professional and novice alike. After the Big Daddy update started taking effect, panic ensued. There were many websites that either got banned, or dropped off the Google radar screen. And, these were sites run by professional SEO folks, as well as agents who spent a lot of time on SEO. They were getting quality links, no link farms, weren't using Black Hat techniques or participating in closed-loop reciprocal linking.

I started warning clients off reciprocal linking and In June of 2006, I wrote blog posts explaining the situation and suggesting that other types of obtaining incoming links should be pursued. And, there are a lot of other ways to get quality incoming links.

My main site had a reciprocal linking directory, too. Thankfully, the site was never punished for it, but like Malcolm, I eventually got rid of the directory, too.

Here's another set of experts' feedback on the topic from the SEOmoz website. The experts who participated in the evaluation of Google ranking factors were fairly well in agreement that if you wouldn't want to sit in front of Matt Cutts and explain how your "relocation guide" is helpful to your clients and not just a way to increase page rank, you shouldn't be doing it.

There are also several remarks that say this approach can work fine - until you get caught.

I'm not disputing that some professionals can manage reciprocal linking. I'm not convinced, but if the proof is there, I can't dispute it.

But, for individual agents who aren't SEO experts, I'd recommend sticking to using strategies for obtaining incoming links that don't involve reciprocal or three-way linking.

Kathleen
www.BuildRealEstateResults.com

Dirk J. wrote, in part: But, by and large, Google respects the right of
business owners to
link to and from whoever they deem appropriate, within reason. That
is a fundamental web marketing tenet that precludes every single
search engine, and it precludes Google by 5 years. Gracious
reciprocation is among the very original methods of promoting a
website.

---

Dirk: Before Search Engines????? Was there ever such a time?

Actually, the name, World Wide Web seems to me to derive from the FACT that
most navigation on the web was facilitated by links between sites... thus
the name WEB...

Just an historical tidbit.

Have a great day!

Best regards,

Paul Silver
Focus Professionals, Inc.

Paul Silver Esq. wrote:
Dirk: Before Search Engines????? Was there ever such a time?
_____________________________________________

Yep, there sure was. I'm ancient enough to remember when the only option was to email the Yahoo guys who were, at the time, still in their Stanford dorm room, and ask them to add your site to their directory (which took about 3 weeks). Our Stephens Design site was among the first 40 web design companies listed in Yahoo back in those Dark Ages 1994-5)... And there was no Internet Explorer because, according to Bill Gates in early '95, the WWW just wasn't an important direction for M$oft to pursue.

Suzanne

--
Suzanne Hathcock Stephens
Point2Agent Qualified Web Site Designer
http://www.SuzStephens.com
360-666-0881

Hi Malcolm,

Thanks for the kind words about the blog tool.
http://www.domaindrivers.com/BlogCommentAssistant/BlogCommentAssistant.html

Please, give it a go, and let me know. It is in "beta" form now, so all user input is very much appreciated. There will likley be a glitch, here and there, as we put it ot the test.

I will look into bloglines.

We have a policy to not reveal our own clients. That is inappropriate.

However, if you want to see some ferocious link building comeptition, though, do some real estate reated searches for these markets...(city St real estate, etc)

Phoenix
Scottsdale
Seattle
Las Vegas
Orange County CA

In my own not so humble opinion, I would say that the Phoenix metro is the most competitive SEO market in real estate.

Nobody is going to compete successfully in the markets mentioned above with a handful of links gathered from here and there and friends and family. Nobody is going to compete there just from posting so-called "great content" and then waiting for someone to find it and link to it, as is often claimed by many in the real estate SEO advice world. It just will not happen. You'll wait until armageddon to get liks.

Anyone in that mix above who IS getting content citations is also promoting their content, vigorously. i.e. WORKING HARD to get links.

The major competitors in thses markets use agressive link building methods of one form or another, and that very often includes reciprocation.

Paul Silver said:
"Dirk: Before Search Engines????? Was there ever such a time? Actually, the name, World Wide Web seems to me to derive from the FACT that most navigation on the web was facilitated by links between sites... thus the name WEB... "
 

Hey Paul, I can still vaguely recall the days before search engines. :)

You are spot on with the WWW reference. Here's another. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. HyperText is a LINK...

Without links, there is no Web. Any site owner that participates actively in the Web will link to and from relevant sites, willingly. That will inevitibly result in reciprocation.

I owned a hobby business before Google. I reciprocated with EVERY relevant site I could find. Because I could never get ranked well in Lycos and Alta Vista. I HAD to reciprocate. When Google came along, I went straight to the top. Still there.

Dirk,
Trust me, I know about celebrity SEO gurus but there are a few with known
results that I try to follow when time permits.
Just to satisfy my curiosity, could you provide a couple of links to sites
that have over a thousand links? I'd just like to see how they set it up.

Malcolm

===

It is my understanding from some of the gurus that what is found to be bad
in linking practices is when the robots find far too many links on a given
page... No more than 12 is my understanding, when the links are all that is
on a page... don't have a particular source for the facts... but that is
what my web company guys say is the way to go... and most sites that do
well, in my experience, seem to stick to this practice. The pages with 10s
or 100s of links on them and no other content appear to be link farms...

Just a comment...

Have a great day!

Best regards,

Paul Silver
Focus Professionals, Inc.

Hi --

Peter,

The "new" ways of getting incoming links aren't easy, but they do work. There's a very long answer to your question.

For the short answer, check this Link Building category on the BRER Blog. There are a number of posts on the topic, many of which contain links to other websites (with good link bait pages!) with even more ideas.

Hope that helps!

Kathleen
www.BuildRealEstateResults.com
www.BRERBlog.com

Dirk wrote:
The major competitors in these markets use agressive link building methods of one form or another, and that very often includes reciprocation.

I am in the Orange County, Ca area and my sites do quite well for the SERP's without recip linking. First page for searches like Orange County MLS search, Orange County Real Estate, Orange County Realtors, as well as #1 for San Clemente Real Estate, San Juan Capistrano Real Estate and many others.

"One form or another", yes, but recip linking is not something I participate in. Recip linking is not necessarily the cure-all to get top rankings.