Do Reciprocal Links Hurt Your SEO? (Link Building Study)
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- Опубликовано: 6 фев 2025
- Do reciprocal links hurt your organic rankings? We studied 140,592 domains to find out and share our findings in this video.
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Are reciprocal links common among websites? And more importantly, are they hurting organic rankings?
We took a sample of ~140,000 websites with at least 10,000 search visits/month. We then looked at the domains they were linking to and those that were linking back to them.
Finally, we plotted the results on a graph which gives a great view of the breakdown of websites with reciprocal links.
Next, we went on to find out if the top ranking pages for different queries had reciprocal links.
Based on a selection of 10,000 random non-branded queries with a certain range of keyword difficulty scores, we looked for reciprocal backlinks ranking in the top 10.
The results were plotted in a pie chart clearly revealing what percentage of the top 10 organic results has a reciprocal link.
Sam then explains if we should be doing link exchanges at all and shares the exact link building strategies you can use to apply the data mentioned to your SEO strategy to get powerful backlinks.
For starters, building relationships through outreach starts with looking out for people you link to a lot.
Here, Sam shares how you can use Ahrefs to see a list of unique links from websites:
1. You’re linking to and the number of times you’ve linked.
2. That are linking to you and the number of times they’ve linked.
The next thing to do is to email these people. Sam lays out a sample guest posting pitch email and shares the mentality with which you should have in mind when sending out these emails.
Join Sam Oh as he shares these easy link building tactics in this tutorial and build some solid relationships with people in your industry.
Timestamps:
0:44 Learn how many websites actually have reciprocal links
1:57 Check if the top-ranking pages for different queries have reciprocal links
3:08 Build relationships with bloggers through outreach
4:44 Start with looking for people that you linked to a lot
5:54 Email to those people
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#linkexchange #reciprocallinks #linkbuilding
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I have been asking myself wether it smart getting links this way or not, because I know it is against the G policy. And most marketers didn't recommended using this tactic when acquiring links. But looking from your perspective it totally normal in a way. If I like the content I will link to it, and if the person on the other side likes my content - why not link to me!? Thanks for opening my eyes! Also I think we will see more of this in the future!
I always thought most people will link to you if they like the links you built. How they sound and also if it's relevant with their content? That http header can hold you down if its configured wrong.
I think what we're trying to communicate is that reciprocal links are a natural byproduct of the web. I've personally seen this happen in small niches when there are only a few big players.
@@AhrefsCom oh now I get it. Thx.
@@AhrefsCom and I totally agree with you.
Hi Sam, This is Alston from Ahrefs Insider Group. Again a great insightful video with awesome animation. Keep it Up !!!
Thanks for coming by, Alston :)
Wow 🎉
Hello Sam, do you have sample link building worksheet report? I need it to send to my clients, thanks
I am in a selective process for a job at the moment. How I wish I had seen this video before.
In the questionnaires they sent, there were some questions about Link Building, after watching this video I think I could have elaborated in a more assertive way.
What were some of the questions? I'm curious :)
@@AhrefsCom One of them was: "How would you put together a link building strategy for the company? How would you do it and why is this strategy important?"
Interesting :) Thanks for sharing.
This was a serious introduction. Thanks.
I am glad you enjoyed the video!
Thank you very much for the valuable information. Hiring the link service for SEO is very expensive for small and medium businesses. :)
They can be :) But that goes to show you the value of links.
I am the First Commentor. Awesome Video Sam, Can I know how many more backlinks are required to outrank 90+ DA Blog from New blog? Thanks
Thanks Kamal. That's an "it depends" kind of question as there are multiple variables to consider. I recommend watching this video if you haven't already. ruclips.net/video/tBjn5TlCZ4c/видео.html
There's a part in there where I talk about "links that move the needle." Not necessarily just about quantity, but the quality and relevance too :)
@@AhrefsCom Thanks Sam, I have seen your every video and all are downloaded in my phone. Whenever I eat food, It's time for your videos which I see continuously. I just love your politeness and way of talking and your awesome content. Right now I am 15 years old and I will launch my first blog next year. Thanks A Lot.
You're welcome and best of luck!
Sam Oh is the man 💪 following your videos and it helped me a lot. Thanks
♥
Glad to hear that you're getting a ton of value :) Feel free to update us on any results you're able to get as a result of implementing some of the strategies.
is it OK to have backlinks from press portals? Always unique content per backlink per portal, or that does not matter also, just avoid it in any case?
Agree with Santiago, you should be good to go
@@AhrefsCom Thank You
@@Sanchy Thanks
Your videos have been a huge help, sir! I was wondering what you thought about reciprocal links from one site that is directly related to another. For instance, if someone is putting excerpts or even full blog posts on Medium, or in a Shopify blog with an associated store, or something similar, is that beneficial, harmful, of no matter...? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!
I wouldn't worry too much as long as they're giving attribution and not copying the entire article. Content syndication generally copies the entire article but should link back to your site.
Very interesting results. Thanks for sharing Sam 👍 yeah.... I never got my pen back
Sorry to hear about your loss 😂
😂 😂 🖊
Makes sense, I avoid reciprocal link building as much as possible. However it would be interesting to see if a site built exclusively with blatant link exchanges could work, maybe one for Ahrefs to try in the future?
Daniel, I do not think there are too many websites with just reciprocal links out there. There is always a tiny place for natural backlinks.
@@AhrefsCom agreed, thats why you should make one exclusively with reciprocals and see what happens, I'll link to the article if you do
Hi Sam, can you help explain in more detail under what condition reciprocal links are considered violation of Google's ToS? Short interval of linking? For example today A links to B and tomorrow B links to A as promised will be considered violation? or number of mutual links? i.e. if number of A linking to B = number of B linking to A will be considered violation? Many thanks as always!
Unfortunately only Google knows the answer. You might want to check Google's guidelines regarding "link schemes" and look for an answer there.
- Max
@@AhrefsCom I see. Thank you for your information.
You are welcome
Hey Sam, Nice video!! One question How to take position back of rich snippet for a ranking keyword? Do you a solution for this?
ruclips.net/video/-p0XyoO1WSA/видео.html
What Daniel said :) Thanks!
Thank you soo much guys for helping, Loving you soo much!!! ❤❤❤❤❤
Thanks sam for this!!
You are welcome!
Lovely video content! Excuse me for butting in, I am interested in your initial thoughts. Have you researched - Lammywalness Amazing Earning Guide (do a search on google)? It is an awesome one off guide for discovering how this simpleton quit his job in 14 days using this basic website minus the normal expense. Ive heard some awesome things about it and my cousin after a lifetime of fighting got great results with it.
I'm receiving link opportunities with tour or transfer companies from International countries which is a great fit for me and relevant to my niche - but I have a much higher DA than them, what would you recommend?
An extra relevant link from a topical website will never hurt you, why not?
Mainly because I will be linking back - that’s the only reason I asked. If it was one way I agree 100% why not.
This sounds like a link exchange to me. Personally, I wouldn't participate :)
Is it still against Google guidelines to reciprocal link one year after (or more)? Or reciprocal linking just means linking a short time after you get linked?
Michele, reciprocal linking is swapping links on purpose. If you created a great piece of content and want to link to a relevant page, that has a link to your site - do not be afraid to do that. If you link to a page just to give a backlink back - not a good practice.
Ahrefs Thank you for answering, it definitely makes sense, but is Google's algorithm really able to understand if I linked a page because it's relevant or just to give a backlink back? It might be impossible to understand it, especially if I link a (relevant) site shortly after it linked my site
If you have several cases of linking to websites that linked to you before, you should be good to go. Google informs that excessive link exchanges are determined as link schema. Our study shows, that it naturally happens people can link to each other, but that should not be exclusively for the sake of cross-linking.
I am sorry, but only Google knows what will be treated as violation of the rules.
- Max
Ahrefs makes sense, it might indeed be possible for a very smart algorithm to detect excessive link exchanges and patterns. Or maybe that rule in the guidelines is there just to scare "black hat" linkbuilders while the algorithm doesn't do anything, who knows :D Thanks for the answer, now it's all clearer. And great choice for the video topic, it's a doubt I had for years, since I started learning SEO.
@@MikiTheDarkness I would not test it on my business site😁
Sam, Can you tell me from where to get the first high quality links to increase Domain authority?
I'm not sure about Domain Authority as that is not a metric we use. As for Domain Rating, I would just focus on building quality links rather than focusing on a score alone. There are low DR sites that I've seen that have no problems ranking for low competition keywords.
I recommend watching this video here on building authority to your pages - ruclips.net/video/433XlvMl508/видео.html
We don't have a spam score in our tool :)
Kamal Bhatt Have you tried Googling your competitors to find their quality backlinks?
@@bartoninteractive7705 I have not yet started blogging. 😀😀
Kamal Bhatt ok cool! Well when you’re getting started, you might consider googling comparable blogs and seeing who is linking back to them. You can then try to formulate a list of sites to go for if you want. Best of luck!
Googles policy is Restraint of Trade and should be punishable by a world wide class action lawsuit.
you forgot to answer the question from the title
I think it was implied the reciprocal links are a natural byproduct of the web. Whereas link exchanges are discouraged as they are directly against Google's ToS classified as a "link scheme."
Also mentioned in the video that I don't think you need to avoid linking to someone if they've linked to you in the past. If they're the best resource to link to, then why not?
Reciprocal links do not inherently harm your SEO if they occur naturally and provide value. However, excessive or forced reciprocal link exchanges can be viewed as a link scheme by Google and potentially harm your rankings. The key is to ensure that reciprocal links are relevant, high-quality, and not overused.
@@AhrefsCom I wonder if in highly competitive niches, where blogs compete against major publishers and ecommerce sites with DA+70, and the response rate is low, continuous outreach can be inefficient and unproductive. Most responses come from a few lower authority sites (DA 30-40). Don't you think the budget and efforts don't have a real impact? What can be done in these cases?