Many of my readers who are little new to blogging world asked me a very important question. “What is better? Reciprocal Link or Backlink?”. Yes this is really an interesting question and before giving an answer to this question lets first see the difference between reciprocal link and backlink.

 

Reciprocal Link : These links are two way. That means your link on some blog in return to that blog’s link on your blog.

 

Backlink : Backlink is the link on the other blog pointing to your blog. It can be reciprocal or one way link.

 

Now the answer to the question:

 

In my opinion I would prefer a backlink instead of reciprocal. (Yes, I would never ignore the good reciprocal link.)

Let say if my blog has a page with PR3 and i have 1 link of other page of my blog on this page. So my current page’s PR is now transferable to the link of other page.

 

So that link will get 100% of the transferrable PR. Now let say if I put one reciprocal link on the page with PR3, so now there are 2 links on that page and the transferable PR will be shared among those two. So now both have 50% share in the transferable PR. And I am loosing the share of 50%. Here note that you have not altered your share it is grabbed by some other link.

 

So what I suggest is if you are offered a one way link and a reciprocal link go for a one way link. Yes you can also go for a reciprocal link if it is really a good reciprocal.

 

Do not hessitate to share your views on this and also correct me if I am wrong somewhere.

11 Responses to “What is better? : Reciprocal Link or Backlink?”

1. trends on October 16th, 2008 6:55 pm

   i see it different. The linkbuilding must be natural, that means – both links are good!
   It is right, more link from one page reduce the power of the outgoing links, but you lose nothing by an recipocal link, becase you recive a link form the other site.
   All links from good site are good for your site – bad neighbourhood is not good
   PS: Excuse my bad english- i’m learning

2. James on October 16th, 2008 7:19 pm

   I completely agree with this post

3. Surfer Jerry on October 18th, 2008 4:24 pm

   Thanks for the useful information. You have a lot of good content here!

4. J Philippe on October 21st, 2008 1:47 am

   Interesting article. I prefer both actually. it helps increase traffic for me and the others as well.

5. citysuvidha on October 23rd, 2008 11:41 am

   great information on backlink and reciprocal link…now i understand what do they mean..thx and keep posting…

6. Isolde on October 23rd, 2008 2:07 pm

   Thank you so much for explaining this to me, I have been clueless on this for ages. Great information, keep it up!

7. Karina on October 24th, 2008 4:32 pm

   Thanks for this posting. Now i am more clear about the links. I would also be interested to know about the strategy to get links. My blog has PR 3 and i would like to link with site that PR is 4 and higher.Please advice
   Karina
   http://www.momreleif.com/blog

8. Loic Brohard on November 1st, 2008 1:47 pm

   I won’t be able to share my view on this as I am not an expert, on the other hand this post helped me understand general principles and how this works. More generally speaking, this is very interesting blog for newbies like me (and I guess also for more advanced users!), Loïc http://brohardphotography.blogspot.com

9. Jussi Koiranen on November 7th, 2008 6:12 am

   What do you mean with transferable PR?

10. Sky Xavier on November 7th, 2008 6:44 am

    @Jussi

    Good question

    by transferable PR i wanted to say that the other link will take some share from the current pages PR.

11. Make Money Online » Link Building and SEO mistakes you must avoid on December 10th, 2008 3:18 pm

    [...] be careful when you put reciprocal link on your blog. As I described in my previous post it may harm your pages’ [...]

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