Reciprocal links with guest posts bad?

[benjaminspak]

I'm curious do you think Google would fault you or you'd get less link power if you made a page (on your website) of your guest posts from across the net and linked out to them?

[danatanseo]

Forget about Google. Would your readers like it? I bet they would.

[OlegKorneitchouk]

Great question.

I think for powerful sites, you don't need to worry about it. If you are a new site, this could be seen as a reciprocal linking scheme. I'd recommend linking to them with a nofollow to be on the safe side. Once your site is well established, remove the nofollows.

To danatanseo's point, if you visitors would like it, you should definitely do it. But if you are really worried about G's interpretation of the page, you can always noindex the page and/or nofollow the links.

[UnderRugSwept]

As the current state of Google lies right now, I'd say no, it wouldn't hurt you. I (ashamedly) admit that up until a few days ago, I still had a page that had a long list of links from link exchanges--I know; I know--bad. But my point is, even with that in place, every algorithm update thus far has benefited us. Considering the fact that the next Penguin refresh is supposed to be major, impactful, and "jarring", I've since removed this page of links, even though it means some of those sites will find out and remove their links to us as a result. OK, I realized I've done nothing to answer your question and have just provided you with a random anecdote, so I guess my question is: why do you want to have this list of guest posts? Is it for the purpose of displaying your work so others can read it?

I do like Oleg's suggestion of noindexing the page. Then you won't even have to worry about what Google thinks of it.

[irvingw]

I would not link out to the pages you are getting links from! Let Google try to figure out that you are doing guest blogging  to get incoming links and boost your rank for keywords, why make it easier on them?

[danatanseo]

Okay, so my response may have seemed flippant, but really, after everything we've learned in the last year I can't believe the discussion still is all about "what Google likes" and no one is talking about "what my readers like."

Ben, I went and looked at your blog and I think it's awesome. It's full of great content. If you have loyal followers, and they like your content, why on earth would it be a bad thing to say "Hey guys, I know you like my content, so here are some links where you can read some of the posts of written elsewhere." I think that's a cool idea. If you want to, make them "no follow" - I don't think it matters. Google is smart enough to see that you are an author referencing your other work. Readers love that. What's the first thing you see when you open up a book? You see a list of other books by the same author. Is that only self-promotion? I don't think so. You are making it easier for people who like your stuff to find more of it.

[NakulGoyal]

I know there are 5 other responses so far and mine is the 6th one. Honestly, I would not link out to them. I would not create a connection between all your guest posts and you...it does sort of a web-ring which used to exist over a decade ago. These will clearly get seen as reciprocal links. If I were you and I had domain authority, I would not do it. If you want to, why not share them on your Facebook page. Tweet them. Whatever else makes sense...except linking directly from the site where all those guest posts are linking to.

Some people may disagree....but I would rather have those links be as one-way links instead of reciprocal links.

[danatanseo]

I like your idea of posting them on a Facebook page. I think that's a great compromise in this situation.

[benjaminspak]

Solid answer, I didn't even consider no-indexing the page, it'd primarily be for users anyway.

[NakulGoyal]

Ben, can you host the page somewhere else and call it in an iframe maybe. Or a Javascript Modal window the contents of which are stored in a folder which is denied in robots.txt or Just deny the bots access to this file. If I were you, I would post it anywhere but on the same domain.

Just my 2c. Think about it.

[benjaminspak]

A viable solution, but I don't want to be too covert about it.