Adam Lasnik on link exchanges

Posted by DazzlinDonna on November 21st, 2006 in SEO Tips

…reciprocal links have been around forever, and Google doesn’t frown on engaging in reciprocal linking in moderation.

The key here is, indeed, moderation . If, say, 90% of your backlinks are reciprocal, that’s probably not going to improve how our algorithms view your site. Or worse, if 90% of your backlinks are reciprocal and not likely to be of interest to your user.

But exchanging links here and there — *especially* when done with clear editorial judgement (e.g., you’re not just accepting dozens of link exchanges willy-nilly) — that’s not the sort of thing Google looks down upon.

Hope that helps clear things up a bit!