Update: Google has a new help page describing link schemes.
When I am describing the Google webmaster guidelines, one of the most common questions I encounter is “What is a link scheme?” and also “What is a bad neighborhood?”
I explain both of these in my description of the guideline that mentions these terms…
To see more about this guideline please visit my Avoiding link schemes page.
Related posts:The Little New Google Guideline That Could
Help Google Help You – the Google webmaster guidelines
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
When you talk about reciprocal links – does it only count as a reciprocal link if it’s completely unrelated to your site or what ?
Say you have your site on topic x that has links to other sites on topic x who also link back. Surely that’s not bad in G’s eyes?
A great way to look at it is to ask yourself, “did I put this link on this page for a user?” Would I have made this link if search engines didn’t exist?”
If you have a new website and most of your links are reciprocal (even if they are topical) then you are in a bad place.
It is hard for people to see, but for new websites, you are much much better off to have no links than you are to have poor quality / risky links.
Fair enough.
Thanks for the advice.
Hey Pat, nicely put and you were the first to recognize this help page. BTW you’ve created a new niche “poker cats”, do you make money with it?
Another term for the opposite of a natural links is artificial link.