Actually, the answer is yes........and no. What is a reciprocal
link? It is a link to a page that is linked back to ours.
Of course, a non reciprocal link is a link from a page that
we are not directly linked to.
Page rank is associated in some ways to linking. You see,
the more links that point to our pages, the more important
Google tm or other search engines think our page is. Non
reciprocal links to our page (not on our page) add a lot
more weight than reciprocal links. Search engines think that
if a page is willing to link to ours and not get a link back,
then our page must be important. They see it as a recommendation.
But that´s not always true. The importance of the pages
that link to ours is also accounted for. You can get 100
free hosting pages of your own and then link them to your
special page with non reciprocal links and you wouldn't get
any change in rank; it is a "Zero * Zero = Zero" equation.
You have to get links from pages that rank well. Then comes
the other side of the question. Can I have any page link
mine? And the answer is NO. Search engines think of the web
as a neighborhood. If you are linked to a good neighborhood
then you must be good. If you are linked to a bad "hood" then
you must be bad and they rank you.
So linking to pages with illegal content such as MP3's,
Warez, Hackers, etc. will soon get you a bad ranking. And
probably your submission to the directories will not be accepted.
The other point of linking is ANCHOR TEXT. Anchor text is
the text of the hyperlink. Read this two examples:
Example 1
http://www.elmejorguia.com/Index_english.htm
Example 2
Free tools for webmasters
You inmediately see the difference. Although both links
can point to the same page the way they are phrased is different.
Not only does this make a difference in the way people read
the link or the way the link gets their attention, but also
when search engines "see" the link, they associate this words
with your site and you climb ranks in those Keywords for
any associated searchs.
Now you get the point?
Your links should have good anchor text that is related
to the keywords that you want to exploit.
But search engines also see KEYWORD SPAM when they find
too many links with the same phrasing beacuse it doesn't
seem natural They think that it is impossible that all webmasters
would write the same words when linking your page. That means
that you have to use slightly different phrases each time
you get links to your page.
Last but not least, search engines do not see words inside
pictures so image links and banners do not get you any ranking
for any keyword.
Francisco Santander
