As they mentioned over on SE Round Table – the discussion regarding reciprocal links has been had hundreds – and maybe even thousands of times. At least once per week I get asked about them either whether they’re part of what we do or if te person on the phone should do them, etc. etc.
I won’t pretend to have the hard-and-fast answer that is true 100% of the time ind in fact – my belief is that there is no answer that is right 100% of the time. It’s one of those pesky times where one has to use their common sense. Rather than trying to find a hard-and-fast “recip links work” or “recip links don’t work” one should rather look at each link and ask, “should this link work?” If you’re getting a link on a page with 143 links ranging from real estate to blue widgets then it doesn’t matter whether it’s recip or not – it shouldn’t be counted. On the other hand, Beanstalk has a link on the WebProNews site where they’re references our blog posts, etc. Similarly – I’ve also linked to them as a great resource. Should these links be ignored because we happen to link to each other? Are they recip links?
Here’s the long-and-short of it:
- Recip links are not in-and-of-themselves horrible if it’s an exchange of references with sites you’d actually recommend.
- Recip links can be a royal pain to try to manage. You might find one-way links easier in the long run
- Recip links should NEVER be the only link strategy of a campaign. Of course, the same can be said for any link building strategy. A site that stands on one leg will soon fall.
The debate continues over at Webmaster World at http://www.webmasterworld.com/link_development/4151507.htm.
Good luck to you. 
SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 7:44 pm
