Fri Dec 28 09:03:17 PST 2018

164
Reciprocal Link Required
Some directories require reciprocal links to be listed in them. I do not recommend
swapping links with most of these types of directories. Directories are intended to
list sites. Sites are not intended to list directories. If you like something, then feel
free to link to it, if not, then don?t. Some vertical niche directories are of high
enough quality to deserve links, but most are not.
Link popularity is a currency, and if you are lacking money (as I was when I started
on the web
, you may need to reciprocate a few links off the start, but if you get
too aggressive with link trades, you will be digging yourself a hole by making your
link profile unnatural, and you can waste many hours of time.
The exceptions to this rule are that I am usually willing to reciprocate links with the
following directories:
? Extremely powerful sites that I do not believe are going to get
penalized. Generally this type of site still should be on the same topic
as your site.
? Directories that are well-focused and are defined as an industry hub in
my topic. The SEO Consultants Directory, for example, would not be
a bad directory for SEO sites to link to.
Directory Warnings
Some sites that pose as directories do not provide static text links and/or their
pages do not get indexed. Many of these databases will never provide any direct
traffic or link popularity. Additionally, many directories require reciprocal linking
and use their sites to promote aggressive high-margin products. If you link into
sites that primarily promote off-topic high-margin items, then you are sharing the
business risk that site owner is taking.
If you choose to spend money on directory submission, you should ensure that the
directory provides direct traffic or link popularity. You can do this by checking to
make sure their directory pages have some PageRank on them and are in Google?s
cache. Search Google for ?cache:www.directory.com/page.php,? and check the
links of listed sites. When you scroll over a link in the directory, the status bar at
the bottom should indicate the domain that the link is pointing to and not some
sort of redirect. You also can right click on the link to copy link location and then
paste that to the address bar.
? You can check PageRank by downloading the free Google Toolbar.
? To ensure that a page is not showing phantom PageRank, check that
the page is in Google?s cache. Search Google for
?cache:www.whateversite.com/whateverpage.com.?
? Also make sure that the cache date is within the last month. If a page
has not been cached for many months, then search engines do not
trust that page much.