What are they? Reciprocal links are mutual links you and some other web site owner agree to post on your respective sites.

Why are they so important? It goes back to basic nature of Internet. The Internet exists as an information medium. When you go to a search engine, you are looking for links to information you need. The better information sources have already been found by others, many of whom thought so much of those sources that they placed links to them on their web site. So number of other web sites linking to a particular source of information, better chance it is a good source of information. All major search engines take link popularity into account when they determine how to rank results of any search. The end result is that to get a good ranking in major search engines, an important step is to make sure there are lots of other sites that link back to yours. And, since links are reciprocal, you will need to put a link to each site that links to you. You can’t expect someone to link to you unless you link to them.

All right, you say, I will get all my friends to put links to my site on their sites. Not so fast! The number of links isn’t all that matters! In addition to looking at number of links that point to your site, search engines also examine quality of those links. Links from sites that are relevant to yours rank highest. If you sell dog food, for example, some good sites to link to yours would be pet toys, dog training, dog grooming, etc. Acquiring a lot of links that don’t relate to your site not only doesn’t help your search engine ranking, it will hurt it, because search engines will assume you are trying to fool them into thinking your site is popular with a lot of “junk” links. Don’t worry, there are lots and lots of relevant sites to do reciprocal linking with.

The number one ranking for any search term isn’t entirely determined by number of links to a site, but it is an important factor. And, as you know, having a ranking in top ten for a search term will guarantee more visitors to your site. But in addition to improving your chances of being found through search engines, having links to your site on lots of other sites means you will get exposure to many site visitors who look at links page or links section of a site for other related sites to visit. And, more places your name and site name pop up, more you are likely to be recognized as an authority on topic of your site.

So how do you go about building reciprocal links on your site?

He tried to open his mouth to ask a question, but despite his best effort, all that came out was an incoherent response.

I had just explained to my uncle concept of "recommendation marketing", which basically left him speechless.

The aftermath wasn't a pretty sight.

It was comical seeing this usually well spoken man, who seemed to have an opinion on everything (especially other people's business), stricken speechless.

I am not afraid to admit I reveled in moment.

He couldn't believe how much I made each month, by simply recommending high quality products and services to my customers.

What really blew him away, was when I revealed that it only took me an hour to set everything up, and I continue to make this residual income each and every month.

If I choose to go and play ice hockey, work out, or do something else I enjoy, I will still be earning same amount.

This is power of recommendation marketing.

The principle behind this technique is quite simple, but you must earn people's trust for it to be effective (This means being honest and not trying to make a quick buck).