Three-way (3-way) links
12/01/2009
Firstly Cornish WebServices do not operate 3-way link building schemes as we believe them to be against Google policy and risk client websites from being banned by Google.
What are 3-way links?
A 3-way linking policy is a strategy where website A link to website B. Website B links to website C and website C links to website A. This contrasts with a reciprocal links program in which website A links to website B and website B links to website A.
Those who promote 3-way reciprocal linking state that Google is unable to trace these links. We are not so sure.
But these methods have even greater risks. Most 3-way linking programs occur within paid programs or schemes, and Google have a definite dislike of paid links, so this is a high risk strategy, most likely to see your website being banned or penalised.
Are 3-way links effective in the short term?
Cornish do not believe 3-way linking strategies to be at all good for the client. We have yet to see any evidence which shows any improvement in search engine visibility from these links. It is true that some SEO agencies claim an increase in ‘SEO performance’ when using the techniques – but often this is using the ‘number of acquired links’ as a measure of performance. The real issue here is whether any of these acquired links have any value at all. We think not.
Other ‘ethical’ SEO companies using 3-way linking
We are aware that many of our ‘ethical’ SEO competitors do in fact operate these schemes, usually outsourced to offshore link building companies. Yet this is clearly against Google policy. By contrast the Cornish SEO strategy is long term sustainable high rankings through high quality content which Google approves of.
