Guidelines For Successful Link Development

As a search engine optimizer, I receive numerous and regular requests for reciprocal linking. I think that the below article addresses the points regarding this theme in a way that I fully agree with. Check it out.

I do not and never have believed in reciprocal linking because the
fundamental concept: you link to me and I'll link to you, is flawed.

If you find a site's or page's content to be particularly useful and
believe its content will benefit your visitors, then link to the page.
You won't link to another Web page because they wouldn't grant you a
reciprocal link? Perhaps you didn't find the content as useful as
you thought you did.

Many Web site owners receive e-mails from SEMs saying they've added
a link to their site, with a request the site owner read and edit
the listing. The e-mail commonly mentions PageRank, or 'PR,' as it's
known in the SEM industry. The expectation is the site owner will
return the favor. Otherwise, the link will be removed.

Whenever you receive this type of e-mail, promptly filter out the
address and delete it. If the SEM company truly felt your site's
content were valuable, they'd link to your site with or without
that link being reciprocated."

The source article for thisGuidelines For Successful Link Development was written by Shari Thurow for Clickz.com.

Here is a link to another Thurow article on linking.