A reciprocal link is a communal link among two objects, generally between two websites to ensure the mutual traffic. For instance: Alice and Bob have websites. If Bob's site links toward Alice's website, and Alice's site links toward Bob's website, then both websites are reciprocally linked. Website owner often submit the sites to reciprocal link exchange directory, in order to attain top rankings in the search engines. Reciprocal linking among websites is a vital part of the search engine optimization procedure since Google use link popularity algorithms to grade websites for relevancy.

Three way linking

Three ways linking (site A -> site B -> site C -> site A) is a special kind of reciprocal linking. The effort of this link building technique is to make more "natural" links in the eye of search engines. The worth of links by three-way linking method can then be better than usual reciprocal links, which are typically made between two domains.

Automated linking

In order to take benefit of the need for inbound links to rank fine in the search engines, a variety of automatic link exchange services have been introduced. Members of this scheme will normally agree to have a number of links added to all their web pages in return for receiving similar links back from new sites.

Link exchange

An option to the automated linking over is a link exchange forum, in which member will advertise the sites that they desire to get links to, and will in turn proffer reciprocal or 3 way links back to the sites that link to them. The links generate by means of such services are subject to editorial assess.