You’ve done all the right things to ensure you get the best possible search engine ranking for your site: optimized the right keywords, your meta tags, even wrote brilliant content that the world is about to fall in love with.
Now you are moving on to the most important part of any search engine ranking strategy: link building.
But wait a minute. Looks like you are in luck!
You get an email similar to this one:
Hello,
As I was surfing around Google , I discovered your website: https://trafficgenerationcafe.online/ I am trying to add as many informative websites as possible to my site. Which in turn will benefit my users as well as provide you with relevant traffic to your site. I have a website with about 5,000 – 7,000 people on it per day who fit the same demographic as your site.
If you follow this link, http://www.widgets.com/?pg=2eC4L you will see that I put your link on my homepage.
Some website owners do not like when other sites link to them so I thought I might ask for your review.
Please get back to me when you have a chance, to let me know if the link I have placed suits your needs. Also if you would like a custom Title for it just send me a email and I will get it updated.
Have a good week
Of course, you check out their website first.
You see a good amount of backlinks, very few outgoing links, decent PR 3-5 – all in all, LOOKS like a good reciprocal link building candidate.
Do you go for it?
Well, let’s take a closer look at this reciprocal link building request.
Look at the URL in the email and you’ll see a referral code in it (usually looks like ?pg= or ?ref=).
This either sets a cookie when you click on it or logs your IP (or both), which makes your site “appear in the sidebar”.
For all intents and purposes, you see your site link somewhere in their sidebar, but the truth is this info is entirely manipulated and if you clear your cookie cache or take a look at the website from a different IP, your link will be nowhere to be found.
Here are some other signs that this reciprocal link building request is nothing but a scam:
1. Look for the presence of a line within the <head> section of the code that looks like this:
<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,nofollow” />
This tells search engines that this page should not be indexed and not to follow links on the page.
So, if your page is listed on this page, it will be ignored by the search engines.
2. Robots exclusion
Take a look at the site’s robots.txt file (www.theirdomainname.com/robots.txt) and look for a line that excludes the page containing external links.
For example:
Disallow: /links.html
Again, if a line like this exists, the site manager is a link grabber and any of your links on their site won’t be given credit by Search Engines.
3. Indirect links to your site
If you’ve managed to avoid all the above reciprocal link building pitfalls and you are ready to get your link added to the link exchanger’s site, hold on, we’re not done yet. Even if they are honest enough not to have written clever code to fool the search engines, you may find that links on their site aren’t all they appear to be.
For example, they may be using code behind what appears to be a genuine link to redirect to another page, which then launches your website. This is all well and good for human visitors, but a search engine will never run that code.
Say the link appears to go to www.mywebsite.com, take a look at the code and you may see something like this:
<a href=”/linkdirectory.php?id=3245>www.mywebsite.com</a>
You’ll see that instead of giving search engines some nice clear keywords and a website to visit, they are directing the link to a piece of code that will then forward the visitor (but not necessarily a search engine to the site).
Reciprocal Link Building Scams Wrap Up
This is a very unfortunate practice in the race for better search engine ranking. It’s unethical, cunning, and it makes more and more website owners implement “nofollow” policy on their blogs/sites.
Another word of caution: be careful when hiring an SEO company to do your link building. If they happen to employ any of the tricks above, your blog runs a risk of being labeled as unethical in the community – not the kind of reputation you want to have.
My thanks go out to www.earnersblog.com and www.geeksaloud.com for the idea and facts for this post.
You are right: you don’t have to comment or retweet, but would it help if I told you it would be much appreciated? 
PS For more no-nonsense traffic generation and conversion tips from Ana, fill out this short spam-free form:
PPS My SEO tool kit I can’t live without seriously:
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{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
I like checking where you link will be going from those emails. Especially when they say I’ll add your address on one of these pages, you can almost guarantee that the link will apear on the one with the lower pr.
Pippa invites you to read: Link building and Page Rank
Theoretically, I’d love to see that, but I just hate wasting my time on this, Pippa. It’s much easier for me to just hit my delete button.
Ana
Hey Ana,
Wow! I have recently received a few requests to exchange links….will need to go check them to make sure all is as it is supposed to be.
Since I found you I have learnt so much .. thanks
Cheers
Bryan
You have no idea how much it means to me to hear you say that, Bryan - it’s always great to know that I am not talking into a vacuum.
Thanks for stopping by!
~Ana
thanks for the warning, Ana - I’ve been receiving a number of emails from a particular legit looking online blogging site - I have the habit of gathering in a number of newsletter emails when I have freshly subscribed to such a site and then take a look at the pattern of their mailing - this one in particular sends me an email almost identical to the sample you’ve written about every 4 emails.
I won’t be taking up the offer!
Regards - Carl
Carl Harris invites you to read: Emotional Healing – Desperation is the Requirement
Glad I could be of help, Carl.
You know so many people tell me that they have no idea what to email to their list, etc. I always tell them that the smartest thing they can do is exactly what you are doing - get on other email lists and gather ideas!
Thanks for stopping by.
Thanks, Ana.
A lot to learn here, even if it isn’t a problem for me just yet! Soon when I become almost famous…
Let me know when you get there, Zahn:).
Glad you find my ramblings informative.
~Ana
That’s very interesting and helpful but what’s the benefit to the other party? They’ve posted a link to you but it doesn’t look like they have asked for a link from you. What do they get out of this?
Where’s the reciprocal element here?
Good question, Diana.
First they make it look like they posted a link to your site, then they DO ASK for you to post a link from your site to theirs.
So they get the benefit of your page attributes.
The biggest problem here is that if Google deems that website a “bad neighborhood” site, which is very likely considering the tactics they use, then your website will be penalized for the link.
That’s why such scams should be avoided.
Thanks for the question!
~Ana
Hi Ana,
Thanks so much for all your great information on your blog. VERY helpful. I usually get these kinds of requests and they go straight to my junk folder. I check my junk every once in a while, and I’ve always wondered, but never acted on it. Glad you stopped me wondering! All the best..Sara
Easy Appetizers invites you to read: Caramelized Onion Dip
Glad you followed your guts on that one, Sara!
Thanks for stopping by,
Ana
PS That Caramelized Onion dip looks soooo delicious:).
Ana,
Another great article. I always wondered about that, I usually see that with regards to my blog.
Keep writing these informative articles, we so appreciate you!
Maryann
Feels great to know that, Maryann - thanks for letting me know and reading my posts!
~Ana
I want to quote your post in my blog. It can?
And you et an account on Twitter?
Yes, feel free to quote it and thanks for asking first!
Best,
Ana
PS Twitter ID @WebTrafficCafe
PPS It looks like a lot of your blog is in Russian; I am from Russia as well, my full name is Oksana.
Nice information, I really appreciate the way you presented.Thanks for sharing..
Well, you have the facts to explain what I felt in my gut.
I actually got a request like this recently. It was all so anonymous, so junkie, so …. did you say scammy? that I labeled it for the junk folder. Looks like my hunch was right.
It’s argued (and I agree with this point) that you don’t gain much through reciprocal linking any longer.
So with all these scams out there, why even bother?
Thanks for stopping by, Richard!
Hey Ana,
Great article, as always!
Thanks for pointing out the link building scams out there!
All the best,
Mavis Nong
My pleasure, Mavis!
Hi Ana,
It never fails to amaze me how much work some people will do trying to get out of working. Wouldn’t they be farther ahead if they honored their word?
Sooner or later any scam is going to be found out, then they do it again, cheat more people, get caught again…
Too much work for me, I would rather build it right once, then keep improving on it.
Anytime I’ve gotten an email like that I just ignored it. I didn’t know what to look for to tell if it was legit. Now I do, thanks.
Mike
Apparently, spamming does work; otherwise nobody would be doing it.
That’s why I felt that this info deserves to be posted.
Thanks for the comment, Michael!
Hey Ana,
Figured I’d pop over and meet you and your site.
I see you have a banner for Market Samurai….did they offer up an affiliate program?
I use it, and like it, but every time I checked…they never seemed to have an affiliate program…but that was like a year ago.
Brandon
Thanks for stopping by, Brandon!
Yes, Market Samurai just started offering an affiliate program; here is the link:
http://www.marketsamurai.com/affiliate.php
Ana
Wow Ana,
You definitly taught me something new again today! I cant wait for the next post !
Thank you so much,
Robert
Thanks, Robert - the next one coming soon:).
I like it Ana
I haven’t come across any link building sites as yet (maybe their emails are in my junk folder somewhere).
Thank you for making us aware of this pitfall out there.
Greatly appreciated
Dwayne
That’s where most of mine end up - fortunately.
Thanks for stopping by, Dwayne!
Anna, thanks for all of the examples of how people try to scam you.
Some of them are so subtle you really have to be careful.
No kidding, Peter - and even worse, every day we seem to be confronted with a new one!
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