RenaisNet

This linking policy applies to all the websites and blogs in this network.

I do not make a habit of doing direct reciprocal links as they are nearly worthless for purposes of search engine optimization and traffic building. Instead if you link to any of my sites from your quality site, I offer something better. Read through this and you'll find the contact form to get your links. There is also more background information after the contact form if you wonder about the «why» of all this - it may help you get better results for your own sites.

1. If you link to any of my sites, I will link to your site from a different site, so we each get one way links which are much more valuable than reciprocal links.
2. The link will be from a site on a different Class C IP address from the one you linked to, making it even slightly more valuable.
3. I will vote for/bookmark your site on several social bookmarking/social networking sites. I use Furl,Digg,StumbleUpon,Delicious and several others and I'll add your site on all of them that are appropriate.
4. If you have a particularly high quality site that I think could use the recognition, I may give you a bonus link or two from a third or even fourth site (also on separate Class C IP addresses) or from one of my blogspot blogs, etc.

Too good to be true? No. If your site becomes more valuable, your link to me becomes more valuable.

There are a few rules and exceptions:

1. This is a family friendly network, so I deal only with family friendly link partners. I have nothing against other types of sites, they just don't fit the mix here. Sorry.
2. Family friendly does not include adult humor, adult material. It also doesn't include sites whose main focus is tobacco, gambling, drugs or alcohol with nothing else to recommend them.
3. I don't link to spam. If it looks even a bit fishy, I will reserve the right to say no.
4. I don't link to sites that appear to have been banned from the search engines. If I can't determine whether a site is banned, I'll err on the side of caution at least at first.
5. I don't link to anything that seems to me to be a con, a fraud, a scam. This doesn't mean readers should be complacent, it just means I'm not going to knowingly steer someone toward something shady.
6. Nothing illegal - no cracking, virus or warez.

Send me a note with this form telling me where you've linked from and what page, if different, you want me to link to. (If you have a preference of a RenaisNet site to receive a link from, feel free to let me know, but the final decision on that is mine.)

Why not reciprocal links?

Reciprocal links aren't «bad.» They won't get you banned from the search engines and if you have a new site that hasn't even been indexed, then getting a few reciprocal links from high quality sites will get you in. That said, the major search engines discount the value of reciprocal links. They figure, rightly, that the links are a trade and not a completely spontaneous expression that the webmaster thinks he's linking to a quality site. A one way link on the other hand is search engine gold - it looks to the search engine like a spontaneous «thumbs up» from the linking website. These links give some of the pros and cons of reciprocal links, but the bottom line even these authors agree with is that links that aren't a direct «my home page for your home page» trade are best.

http://www.searchrank.com/blog/2007/10/seo-myth-reciprocal-links-are-bad.html

http://www.searchengineguide.com/stoney-degeyter/analyzing-onewa.php

What's the big deal about separate IP addresses? The bottom line is that search engines use the IP address, as well as the domain name, to help determine who owns a website. Linking to your site from a separate domain on a separate IP address just puts one additional layer between your link to my site and my link to yours. Here are a few links:

http://www.gotwebhost.com/faqs.html

http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/archives/2007/03/which_is_better.html

relevant Google search