Originally posted in 2006 and updated for 2008. Look around you, the SEO industry is routinely at least 6-12 months behind search engine trends be it good or bad. There is always considerable discussion, in an effort to stay one step ahead of the competition, regarding the importance of the various linking schemes available today compared to the past and the subsequent impact on a web site tomorrow. This article will provide a brief discussion on the various linking schemes and what SEOs should think about them today.

A) Reciprocal Linking:

The idea is simple: Site A links to Site B, Site B links to site A in return. Currently, there is sufficient evidence to suggest the major search engines are starting to devalue reciprocal linking and are distinguishing between unrelated and related backlinks, labelling and grading them accordingly. There is a general consensus that reciprocal linking has a reduced impact when it comes to influencing your SERPs, however, they still remain a viable method of increasing your ‘search engine position’. High quality reciprocal links, and by high quality I mean links that are from worthy sites with relevant and rich content for your users, remain important components of the SEO puzzle and any linking strategy.

‘Low quality’ but relevant reciprocal linking remain an acceptable practice, if not for anything but community building. The largest community building sites on the internet, MySpace, Blogspot, all rely on community members linking to each other and vice-versa in some fashion. Although SERP positions may not increase dramatically the traffic through ‘word of mouth’ is worthy of the link. (Always be mindful you’re not linking in ‘bad neighbourhoods, stay away from large linking pages and web sites where the sole purpose is apparently to be a glorified link farm.)

While we’re on the subject of community, take into consideration linking strategies that incorporate the latest community ‘devices’. I’m talking primary about blog tools that link users through various networks and elements such as ‘tagging’. Technorati and del.icio.us are worth investigating and promoting your web sites on (assuming you run a blog). This is an excellent source of traffic, awareness, and in some cases one-way links.

B) One-Way Links:

These continue to be the greatest assets in terms of building and increasing online search engine presence and position. There is little indication that one-way links will be replaced as major variables in SERP positions. However, it does get tricky. While some ‘spammy’ techniques still remain viable options for acquiring the ever elusive one-way link, (getting your friends from their blogs/myspace/webpage to link to your site, getting Wikipedia links, mass emailing) acquiring relevant and reputable one-way links, with high page rank, is a challenge.

Relevant means relevant to your content and users; one-way links are usually harder to come by then the indiscriminate one way links from the unrelated web site. This process becomes even harder as you seek pages with higher PR and ‘stature’. Despite this, the number one method and strategy for acquiring one-way links from any source lies within the distinct nature of your content.

Unique and useful content (a little advertising and popularity always speeds things up) is a magnet for one way links. Seek to create what SEO pundits call ‘link bait’, content that is worthy of recognition, unique, and useful enough for other sites to readily link to because it benefits their users.

C) The Site Wide Link:

An excellent method of getting a boost in the SERPs, that is if the year was 2003. Today site wide links or ‘sitewides’ should be avoided as they tend to trigger spamming penalties, or in the very least, delay filters because major search engines see 10,000 links displayed overnight. There are better, more efficient, less expensive, and more ‘white hat’ techniques available. Google will sniff sitewides out and devalue them regardless of any delay or penalty that may or may not occur.

(Also be mindful of not acquiring too many links too fast regardless of method. There is no set value of ‘too many’ so be a good judge between size of your site and overdoing daily links. 10 page web sites with 1000 daily links is way too much. 1000 pages with 50 daily links may be sustainable.)

D) 3-Way Linking Schemes:

The scheme works like this: Site A links to B, B links to C, C links to A. Many SEO webmasters provide a service for their clients where they’ll have their own sites (usually directories) link to e link to webmasters who in tern link to the client of the SEO. The webmaster gets a link on a devalued web directory or some other type of inadequate online resource and the client gets a worthy link from a competitor. The fact of the matter is, not only are 3-way links usually counterproductive for building quality backlinks, but the top search engines today have the ability to discover 3-way links with haste and the verdict is they don’t favour them. Steer clear of these schemes.

So what exactly does that leave? Start up web owners can consider the following low level strategic components of web promo (some are likely left out):

1.) Relevant one way links

2.) Directory Submission (Dmoz, yahoo, to start)

3.) Writing Article’s

4.) Blogging

5.) Forums

6.) Email Marketing

7.) Guestbooks

8.) Press Releases

9.) Reciprocal Linking

10.) Posting Advertisements

Of course, all of these options can be abused, however, it does provide lots of options for the webmasters seeking to expand their backlink repertoire; most of these elements can be completed without cost as well.

So put together a proper linking strategy taking the advice listed above into consideration. Always be wary of quick fixes and old schemes that are perpetually changing as the dynamic industry of SEO carries on.

Remember though, that the best way to get links is to write amazing content and feature it to your target audience (somet type of promo). This will beat out any type of ‘article’ submission you could do. Everyone thinks they write great content so be on the guard for overinflated content value.

Also, it’s important to recall that outgoing links are valuable as well, but only when they link to some thing a) useful, b) a reputible web site.

And, don’t  buy links unless you figure out some grey hat way to do it…. :D Happy linking/promoing!