Is reciprocal linking a good link building practice?

Outgoing links are just as important as incoming links. You only want to link to a website if:

• it has a good LRT Power*Trust

• it has a low DTOXRISK for your backlink profile (you can check this using the Link Simulator (LORT) tool)

• the theme of the website you're linking to is relevant to your niche

• the outgoing link goes to a relevant page on the other website

Be careful not to overdo it

According to Google's Quality Guidelines,

"excessive link exchange ("Link to me and I'll link to you") or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking"

will negatively impact a website’s ranking in search results.

Are directory links risky?

Not all link directory links are risky, but you need to be very careful.

Link directories have been used for many years, but many of them have not added any quality to the Web. The only reason they existed was for providing backlinks.

Adding your site to any web directory just to get a backlink will have a negative effect on your website’s ranking. There are many directories out there that provide no real value to the Internet users and Google has excluded them from its search results.

Still, there are some good directories that provide useful information for your potential customers. The key to link building is relevancy, therefore building links in niche directories and directories attached to informative websites relevant for your industry can be beneficial for you.

Remember to always check the impact that new links would have on your backlink profile using Link Simulator (LORT).