Reciprocal links / backlink exchange: how (not) to overdo it

[mattstephenskc]

Hello again,

A couple of times a year, law firm/lawyer/attorney awards come out (today, it's Best Lawyers), and we like to brag about it! The blog templates they provide (which I usually customize) include backlinks to the attorneys' award profiles/listings on their directory site. Seeing how this is good UX (provides proof of the award), they link to our homepage and attorney bios, and there's no harm in linking out to other sites, I've always happily done so.

However, it's my understanding that reciprocal linking (i.e., backlink exchanges) can get you into trouble with Google if it's unnatural (not the case here) or overdone (too many links going in both directions). I'm worried about the latter, because:

1. Each attorney bio gets a backlink from them, and
2. They get a backlink from us to each attorney profile/listing on their site.

Often, this amounts to 12-15 links in each direction. In the case of our blog announcement, we have 12+ outbound links in that one post (each attorney name listed is linked to their award profile).

Is this too much? Hypothetically, it would seem so.

However, our site has historically gotten a nice bump in traffic in the weeks following these posts. Should we continue with our status quo, or stop linking out from the posts to the award bios (which are necessarily several)?

 

[helloworld]

You're not building the links for the purpose of manipulation then you are 100% fine.

I would think that these links help attribute the right person in google search. So if a Google user goes to search for XYZ lawyer from your firm then they will be able to find the awards page because Google can see you have linked to it and you are both trusted sources.

I have a legal client whom mostly promotes the best lawyers with an image icon in footer and posts an update to their blog. They do not link out to Best Lawyers at all. The choice is yours.

What you can do is add the link and then monitor the keywords. These types of links are more so to build authority in the niche. In short that means, to build your trustworthiness i.e. an article with no links may rank on first page much quicker than a new website