September 2006

What do I mean by “Reciprocal Link Ultimatums”?

I receive reciprocal link requests all the time. The pitch usually follows this line of reasoning: “If we link to each other, both of us will benefit.”

In many cases, this is true. We will both benefit. So why do people like me almost always delete these offers? How come this tactic almost never works?

Obviously, you don’t want to participate in massive link exchange schemes, but that’s not what I’m talking about in this post.

I’m talking about how I routinely delete seemingly legitimate offers.
For example: I will trade a link from my PR-1 website for a link on your PR-5 website and both of us will benefit.

In this situation, both parties will benefit somewhat, but one party will benefit much more than the other. (Inequitable outcome) So what? If both parties will benefit, then why not accept the offer and receive the benefit? Who cares? Something is better than nothing. Right? (Well… Not really)

Human nature dictates that even in seemingly self destructive situations, people tend to resist what is perceived as inequitable, yet positive outcomes. It sounds crazy but market-oriented societies tend to have a very high inequity aversion.

This is proved in experimental economics experiments like the Ultimatum Game.

This is how you play the ultimatum game:

The first player (Sender of the link request) proposes how to divide a sum of money (Link Juice) with the second party. If the second player rejects this division, neither gets anything. If the second accepts, the first gets hid demand and the second gets the rest.

For example:
If I have $10.00 and I offer you $5.00 and you accept, we both get $5.00.
If I have $10.00 and I offer you only $2.00 and you accept, you keep the $2.00 and I keep the other $8.00.

Most people will reject the second offer even though it’s $2.00 free money. They will reject the offer sometimes just to punish the person making the offer.

I’ve read in the book The Wisdom of Crowds where even people in third world countries will reject an inequitable offer even if it means not keeping real money in an impoverished environment.

So what can be learned about linking from these experiments?

Usually… People will reject reciprocal link requests unless the trade is equally beneficial.

Sometimes a website like a niche directory will want to link to you anyway but doesn’t know you exist. However… More often than not, you should do your homework and appraise the value of both your website and the target website and then evaluate the trade before you do anything.

Ask yourself if it’s a fair trade? If not, what can you do to make the offer more equitable? What kind of incentive can you offer? Cash usually works. If you don’t have cash, you can try some of these methods.

Don’t waste your time sending inequitable reciprocal link ultimatums. Do something that has a better chance of working.

I got back from SES and was immediately swamped by the backlog of work that usually happens whenever I leave for a few days.

However… The Google Dance this year was even better than last year. I took lots of pictures and had a great time so even though I should have posted this about three weeks ago, I still think it’s better late then never.

The Google Dance is an annual party that Google has to correspond with SES. Everyone attending the conference is invited.

As soon as we got off the bus and entered the “Googleplex” we were greeted by cheering Googlers who acted like we were some sort of celebrities about to take the stage and perform. It was very cool.

The Googleplex is a very cool place in general. They have each of the buildings connected via enclosed, overhead walkways. Once inside one building, you can walk to any other building like some sort of wacky habitrail for software engineers.

After picking up my souvenir t-shirt, I headed to the buffet to see what kind of food they had. As usual they had lots of great food but tiny plates. (I’m a big eater, so I needed several plates)

The door to the main kitchen was open and there were no signs that said to stay out… So I went in.

Here is a picture of the two Google chefs who were coordinating the food effort. I expected them to kick me out, but instead they asked me about the food quality, which was great.

Next stop was the area called “Meet The Engineers”. They had this in a small room and it was hard to find. They did have a small sign, but it was nowhere near the action. They didn’t promote it this year and there were very few people there to compete with. I got to ask Matt Cutts and Adam Lasnik all kinds of questions.

Here I am grilling Adam about how to get new website to show up.
Believe it or not… I stole this picture off the Google Website!

Greg Hartnett from The Best Of The Web (BOTW) was kind enough to give me a t-shirt earlier that day, so I was kind enough to wear it and get his logo on the Google Dance Gallery.

I also got to meet Aaron Wall - AKA SEO Book. (If you don’t read his Blog… You should start today. You should also buy his book.)

After they closed the session down, I found Hawaii local, Brent Norris from Aloha Workshops at the front of the line for the Dance Heads karaoke booth. This was one of those setups like they have at the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet where they place your disembodied head on a professional dancer’s body and make a music video. Brent was with Bill Cullifer and need a third person to join them so I got a silly DVD of myself made. It was hilarious.

Google is great at developing a community around their services and maintaining great client relationships.

Aloha,
Dave.