Be Careful of Angular Links, Also Known as "One-Way" Linking Offers
by Walt Thiessen
December 3, 2004
Last Modified: August 3, 2006
I had an interesting email one morning, and I thought my
answer was worthy of publishing here on the website. He was asking whether we
offer so-called "one-way" linking. This is actually a misnomer. It
should be more accurately called angular linking. The reason I call it
"angular linking" is that if you were to make a diagram of the link
exchange, it would create two lines joined together at your end, since most
webmasters like you offer links from your site to their site in exchange for a
link back to your site. I suppose that if both webmasters offered links to each
other from different sites than the sites where they wanted links pointed back
to them, we could call it parallel linking
Why Be Careful with Angular (or Parallel) Linking?
Over the last few years, I have been approached by a number of webmasters who have offered me angular-linking relationships for websites I manage. After checking them out more carefully, I've decided that if there is anyone out there doing this method of linking ethically, they are are definitely in the tiniest minority. To the best of my memory, I approved only ONE out of the hundreds that have approached me...and only after checking their sites out extremely thoroughly. Even then I approved it with trepidation.
(Note: as of August 3, 2006, I have still only approved a
handful of these requests, after checking them out first very
carefully.)
The overwhelming majority are hiding some defect or deception in their approach that harms the people they're linking with. The most common is link placement that is unreachable by spiders. That's definitely harming the victim who agrees to the exchange, wouldn't you say?
Others offer angular-link sites with wildly disparate PR levels. Why should I help their PR6 page with my PR6 page, when they give me a PR0 or PR1 page in return? That's always a bad trade, and it makes me wonder about the personal ethical standards of the webmasters are who are making these offers to me.
If it were done ethically and without intent to deceive or defraud, it seems theoretically that it could be an effective strategy. However, in practice, I wouldn't want to spend the time trying to find enough ethical webmasters willing to do it on a regular basis, considering so many who are actively practicing it are actually thieves of one kind or another. My links
team is not interested in doing that kind of work...certainly not at the low prices we offer.
It's interesting to note that I have never, ever been approached by someone offering an angular-linking relationship where the page I was offered a link on was higher PR than the page I was linking to. That's food for thought, in my opinion!
Update, August 3, 2006: Beware of this new twist!
A year-and-a-half after I first wrote this article, I am as
wary as ever of angular and parallel linking proposals. Many are now calling
them two-way links or three-way links, but they're still the same concept. A few
proposals made to me have proven to be legitimate, and I have accepted them.
However, the con artists have developed a new twist with this kind of exchange
that is appearing in alarming numbers, particularly over the past couple of
months.
The con is simplicity itself. When the con artist offers
his return link back to your site, it turns out to be from a page that already
has a link to you that another webmaster traded. The con artist doesn't even own
that site! He or she is counting on the fact that most webmasters don't keep
careful records showing where their links are coming from. So long as the return
link is a valid link, that's all they care to check.
The upshot is that the con artist gets away with a link
from you in exchange for...nothing!
Most often, when I get an offer like that I write back with
an email containing a single word only: "Thief" In one case, the cad
had the effrontery to write back and apologize for causing me "any
inconvenience" and propose yet another exchange. That email went directly
into my recycle bin.
Caveat emptor ("let the buyer beware") is
as appropriate as a warning in angular or parallel link exchanges as it is in
making a purchase with money.
©2004 Walt Thiessen, Virginia Host LLC, All Rights
Reserved.
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