Reciprocal linking with same niche in another country

[ilyaelbert]

I was wondering if it was still a viable strategy to pull up 'your keyword' on google.uk or google.au, and email all the top ranking sites or call them and personally ask them to reciprocally link to you. Do these links still hold any value in google's eyes? Or is this a well known strategy that no longer holds any weight and is a waste of time?

[SimonCullum]

Hi Ilya

My first thought is why would those top ranking sites want to engage in reciprocal linking, what's in it for them!  If they are ranking highly, supposedly with authoritive sites, wouldn't make much sense for them to do so.  If the link was one way to them, sure, but reciprocal, doubt it.

Engaging with authoritive site owners/publishers and building up a relationship over time can lead to a one-way link from them, usually much more valuable than a reciprocal link.

I'd suggest spending your valuable time on tasks other than reciprocal linking, the benefits are not usually worth it these days.

Create high quality content that others, including those highly ranking sites, would want to link to, then distribute that content well, seed it, engage with others about it, sure, that's a more effective way to acquire those all important authoritive links that matter.

If you haven't already read it, a relevant blog post here on SEOmoz entitled "Proving Trust on the Web" is well worth a read. One of the topics mentioned is Links.  Time spent Building Trust to help obtain those all important valuable links is usually far more productive and beneficial than participating in reciprocal linking.

Regards

Simon