A Word About Reciprocal Links

A commonplace about reciprocal links is that there are quality reciprocal link exchange campaigns and then there are the spammy automated ones that clog your inbox with ridiculous requests. In discussions of link requests three points of view emerge:

1. Most people send out high quality reciprocal link requests
2. Most people say they receive poor quality reciprocal link requests
3. A lot of people are quiet on the issue of bad/good link exchange requests

There goes the link neighborhood...
With the amount of trash requests out there I can understand how the perception of email link exchange requests has turned negative. Many people can't recall the last time they received a decent link exchange request. Reading a reciprocal link request email has become stressful moment, like getting cut off in traffic.

Reality Check
Yet I have a problem with the position some people take that their link exchange requests are of a higher quality than others. It is in fact unfounded to believe that a reciprocal link is a Google approved technique for promoting a website.

Google is strangely silent on the subject
When you read the Google guidelines for webmasters with an open mind, it becomes clear that Google does not explicitly encourage reciprocal link exchanges. The word reciprocal never appears in the Google Webmaster FAQs. And the only time the phrase "link exchange" occurs is within a statement discouraging webmasters from "joining a link exchange or `free for all' link program..."

In light of the above, one must step back and think about the implications that has towards ranking better. Some will counter that it's all about the traffic. But in light of the way most webmasters hide their link pages (not to mention the uselessness of the typical "links page") you would have to exchange links with thousands of websites before traffic becomes meaningful consideration.

Can we stop and think about this for a moment?
I'm not saying that reciprocal link exchanges are bad, or that people who exchange links are spammers. But I'm not saying that reciprocal link exchanges are encouraged by Google, either. What I am saying is that people should step back a moment and consider what they are doing. It's time to realistically consider what we assume to be true.

I may be wrong, but this is still worth a little thought: The practice of reciprocal link exchange seems to walk like a duck.

Quack.