Reciprocal links are an important part of promoting your website and increasing your search engine rankings.

No matter how great your site is, how much content you have, or what type of product or service you have to offer, you have to let customers know you are out there if you want to get visitors.

The internet is essentially a giant series of links that connect pages and make them easy to find.

In order to get your website the attention it deserves, you need to begin building links between your site and others on the web.

One of the best ways to do this is through the use of reciprocal links.

Reciprocal link exchanges are one of the simplest yet most effective ways to increase traffic to your page and improve search engine rankings.

A reciprocal link is essentially a text link or advertisement to another site that is placed on your site by a webmaster that places a link on his or her page to your site.

Reciprocal links between sites are an agreement between the webmasters at each end of the linking process that they are willing to send customers to that site.

While this may sound easy, there are some things you should know before you start exchanging links with every site you can find.

The best reciprocal links are between sites that are related to each other.

While there is some benefit to be gained from nearly any link, indiscriminately linking to any site that will accept your link can backfire in the long run.

Instead, try to build links between your site and another with related- but not competing- products or services. For example, a site that sells pet food could link to a site that sells hand made dog beds or pet grooming products. Visitors to one site would see the link as a natural extension of what they were searching for and will be more likely to click on that link. Search engines also look more favorably on links between sites with related content- in fact, too many unrelated links can actually lower your search engine ranking.

There are several ways you can approach another webmaster about exchanging a reciprocal link. You can post to a page in your site that links to other pages and make an outright offer to exchange links on that page or scattered throughout your site. You can also search for other sites that would be a good match for your page and send a request through a “contact me” section of that site requesting a reciprocal link. If you belong to an online community of website operators, try posting a request for reciprocal links.

The final thing to remember is the golden rule of reciprocal links- link to others as you would have them link to you. There are a number of questionable practices- such as hiding links under other text, ads, or graphics or installing them in pop-up windows that make it hard for visitors to leave your site- that are used by some sites. Make sure you do not use these practices on your site. Not only is it unethical, it can cause you to develop a reputation among other site owners that will make it unlikely that you will receive reciprocal links. Reciprocal links are a valuable part of a comprehensive search engine optimization strategy that you can begin working on as soon as today!