There are several types of links you have to be aware of when optimizing a site:
- One-Way Links
- Reciprocal links
- 3-Way Links
- Dynamic Links
- Site-Wide or Run-Off-Site Links
Let’s go through each one in detail.
One-way links are links that only go one-way. Site A points to site B. Unlike reciprocal links which are easier to detect by search engine algorithms, this shows the search engine that the page has enough value to point to it naturally.
A more advanced linking strategy can be achieved with the appearance of a “one-way” link by using a strategy called triangular linking or 3-way linking. In order for this to work you must either own or control two different sites, B and C. Site B points to site A and site A returns the link by pointing to site C.
Relevant one-way links are by-far more powerful and more valuable. They carry a greater weight on the search engine and holds better long term value to the site being pointed to.
Other great ways to achieve a one-way link are:
Dynamic links are not very search engine friendly. They typically contain special characters like ? & % + and $. Search engines tend to choke on such URLs and the result is they don’t follow the link.
Such links generally aren’t very useful when it comes to optimizing a site for rankings.
Site-wide or run-off-site links are links for another site that appear on every page of a site. The link usually appears in the footer of a site.
Unless you already have a very large number of inbound links (in the thousands) you should avoid such links because they could get your site penalized when overdone, especially on Google. It’s a risky strategy that should be confined to people who really know what they are doing.
With Yahoo and MSN, these still work quite well. This could be temporary as they fine-tune search engine algorithms and make them more sophisticated.
Also, do you really want to exclude the Google search engine that’s going to offer you about 50% of search traffic?
In the future, these links will be discounted heavily as the search engines improve their filtering methods. It’s not a matter of if, only when.
Prepare yourself now, and avoid regret later.