Would you advise removing a "links" page?

[MarieHaynes]

I'm doing a site audit for someone and they have a links page full of reciprocal links for other similar businesses across the country.

My gut instinct is to remove this page.

How would you approach this if this was your client?

[RyanKent]

I agree with your instinct Marie. Here is how I have approached the same topic with clients...

Ask "do these links offer a value for users?". If your website sells watches, then links to real estate sites and other unrelated sites clearly do not exist for a user's benefit.

If the page offers links to the repair pages for Seiko and other major watch manufacturers, then clearly the page does offer a value to users.

If the site owner disagrees as to the link value, you can use GA to analyze how often the links are used. A site owner may fear by removing these links their linking partner will do the same and their site will lose links. While that may happen, the value of those links is highly questionable.

[MarieHaynes]

Thanks Ryan,

Ask "do these links offer a value for users?"

This is a tough question to answer!  The site is a veterinary clinic.  The page lists recommended veterinarians in other states.  So, it could possibly add some value.

My concern is that Google can't really tell if it adds value to the customer.  Rather, they just see a page full of reciprocal links.

Here's my current thought.  I'd like him to make a bunch of changes that I am suggesting (i.e. title tags and internal linking structure, etc.)  Then, after a few months when the rankings have settled we can try removing the links page and see over the next few weeks/months whether there is a difference.

What do you think?

[EGOL]

I have a few competitors who have "links.html" pages on their sites and they are still doing pretty good. So, I don't think that a links page is doing any damage to their rankings.

Do you know how the site owner feels about that page?  It could have links on it to genuine business partners, cousins' businesses, etc.  So, I would at least check before yanking it down.

I would also worry about the Curse of Maluk

http://forums.seochat.com/google-optimization-7/warning-ref-link-partners-5513.html

[RyanKent]

**My concern is that Google can't really tell if it adds value to the customer.  Rather, they just see a page full of reciprocal links. **

Google can tell a lot!

Google can determine if the links are relevant. A veterinary clinic can create a link to clinics in other areas which can be useful to users. Maybe a current patient is traveling or moving to a new area and looking for recommendations. I can certainly see the value in such a page. Google will recognize the site is linking to other sites which are highly relevant. On the other hand, if the site owner was linking from a vet clinic to a watch repair, car sales and other unrelated sites that would be a concern.

Google can also determine how often the links are used. If these links are rarely used, then they offer little to no value.

[applesofgold]

I agree with most responses so far that links to relevant sites could stay, but any other should be removed. I also like the idea of making changes more slowly, one at a time, and measuring results. That way you know what is working and what is not. That's sometimes harder said than done, because when you see lots of changes needed to be made, there is the tendency to want to fix the site immediately, rather than tracking and measuring results.

[MarieHaynes]

Interesting!

Now I'm confused though.  If it's good to have relevant links even though they are reciprocal then why don't we recommend creating a links page?

To be honest, I've always thought that there was no harm, and probably some benefit from a links page as long as it is not obviously spammy and excessive.  One of our real estate sites ranks really really well and the only links coming to us are recip links.

[RyanKent]

What's recommended is to create web pages which offer value to your site's visitors. If you wish to call them "link pages" so be it. The bottom line, Google is chasing the user experience. How you present your link page makes all the difference to users.

Example 1 - You have a vet website. You offer a "sponsors" page with 50 links. Most of the site's visitors would not have any interest in a sponsors page so the links will likely not be seen nor used.

Example 2 - You have a vet website. You offer a "Pet Travel" page which offers links to pet-friendly hotels, vets in major cities and other helpful information. This page is useful and would be of interest to visitors.

Your link page is content. The same rules apply. Present quality links in a helpful manner and you will be helping your site's users and improving the site's quality and usefulness.

[lonniea]

Any links pointing to authorative sites with good page ranks are fine. I would keep all the outgoing links but add the rel=nofollow syntax in the string on any completely (100%) off topic sites. Even though search are not suppose to follow them, they do anyway. I don't believe they'll penalize you in any way.

But i would definitely check out all links to see what you're linking to. broken links can hurt along with perverted sites and hacker sites.

If you really don't want the search engines to list the page, simply nofollow and noindex the page.

[icecarats]

The question is already answered satisfactorily, but thought I'd add my two cents as well.

In my opinion, the era of the reciprocal link relationship is over. Algorithmically and functionally it is simply far too easy for Google to find and diagnose. At best, reciprocal links will have a neutral effect, a sort of 'white noise' like most link buying programs produce. At worst, you end up linked to shady neighborhoods which influence your category and standing. Promiscuous link seekers can end up in some very interesting neighborhoods; I've done some due diligence on some in the past and realized that they brushed up against poker, pornography, adult dating, etc., all categories that I don't want to be linked to.

[AlanMosley]

Egol and Ryan both give good advice, they useually dont do any harm, but as Ryan said they can look out of place.

One thing you can do if the owner does not want to get rid of them, is to add a load of internal links on the page, that way you will be giving away less, most of the link juice will be recycled. Also dont link to the links page from your home page, link to it from a weaker page, that way it wont have much to give away anyhow.

[AlanMosley]

The problem with this is that the link juice is still lost, if you have a link to the non indexed page it is lost.

[AlanMosley]

Well put

[MarieHaynes]

Oooh.  I like the idea of adding internal links to the page.  Thanks.