Question: How much of a negative impact will reciprocal linking have on my website?

Answer: None, if you do it right. Make sure you avoid the spam link requests that come in your email box.

Hi, wow, what a great site. It was so good I had to put a link to it on my site. Could you add mine too?

Seriously, they didnt look at your site because in about a week, you will get a follow-up email:

Hey, I just noticed that you didnt put a link to my site on your site yet. I know that you must be busy, but I would really appreciate that.
Then about two weeks later you get:

Hey! Whats your problem? I add your site as a link, but you dont do the same. Geez. If you dont put one up in two days, Im taking yours off!
If my content was so good, why remove the link? It is obvious they never saw your site to begin with and they are using an automated tool to solicit links. In short, reciprocal linking is NOT bad – it is just how you do it. Obviously, you dont want to repeat the example above.

Here are some helpful hints when it comes to linking:

1. Avoid responding to obvious SPAM link requests.
2. Call the webmaster / site owner directly and discuss ways you can work together better.
3. Always look to link to your sub pages and not just your home page, there are GREAT benefits to doing a complete link campaign.
4. Avoid links to sites that have a TON of links on their pages – a resource section that seems to go on forever, and there you are, at the bottom.
5. Look at the links page and check the cache date. Is it within the last three weeks> Does the page have a PageRank assigned? If it is at 0/10 your first thought may be, They are probably a new site, or a just a new page, it will be fine in a couple of months. Dont count on it. Many link pages are being banned by Google, thus are NOT being spidered. These links are counted right now by Yahoo! and MSN, but my research indicates that they will be blacklisted soon as well. Take the initiative NOW to ensure that you are in compliance, and your site will reap strong benefits in the long-term.
6. Dont do three-way exchanges as a way to beat Googles detection of a reciprocal link (i.e. Site A links to B; B links to C; C links to A). Google can spot these and if they can tell you are doing this on purpose, they will nail you and nail you hard. Getting back in the Google index after doing this three-way trick takes longer than it does if you have been busted for cloaking. Avoid this technique.

Question: You have stated that the revisit after tag no longer works and that you should rely on linking instead to get the spiders back to your site. What if linking isnt a possibility? Should you then use the tag?

Answer: No, you shouldnt use that tag because it is worthless. The engines dont read it. Think about it, do you really think the engine will obey that tag? Their attitude is that they will come back when they are ready to, not before, and especially not when you tell them too through a meta tag.

Question: When using the Copyright meta tag, and another site copies the page and uses it, will this help in indexing or linking?

Answer: No, this tag is also completely worthless. Remember, the only time a link or reference to a URL is beneficial, is when it is hyperlinked in the BODY of the document, not in the header.

Question: How important is it to have a separate IP address for a domain?

Answer: It can be very important. Make sure that if you have more than five domains you have your own dedicated server. A new IP address should be checked to ensure it is clean and they generally run $25.00 for setup and $1.00 per month. If you are being charged a much higher rate, you should consider moving hosts.

Question: As an affiliate marketer, what is a great tool that I should have in terms of Webmaster/Domain information?

Answer: Thats easy, a DomainTools.com membership. A Silver membership runs a whopping $15.00 per month, and I probably make thousands per month due to information I am able to obtain from the membership. A lot of super affiliates are very good marketers but they are inherently stupid when it comes to protecting their business and domains.

Question: What if I am creating a very large 500 page site? Should I wait until it is all done before letting the search engines index it?

Answer: It used to the be the case that you wanted to wait for at least 100 pages of content to be developed before allowing the search engines to spider your site, however, that has changed. It is clear that the niche 4-6 page site is back in favor of the major search engines. What is recommended, is that you have the bulk of the site complete, all the links in working order, and there are no dead ends for the search engine spiders to die in. You will also want to create a Google Webmaster Tools account, an XML Sitemap and have that start to be spidered. Everything that you can do to show the search engines that the bulk of your site is complete as you work on getting all the branches added will benefit you.