Exchanging Links With High PR Link Directories - Good or Bad for SEO?

Hi Devin,

What you're talking about is call "reciprocal" links and generally they don't carry as much weight as one-way links. Not only can the link be thought of as "incentized" since you're exchange the favor, the other issue is that these link exchanges tend to have a ton of OBL's (outbound links) which diminishes the link juice to each one.

It shouldn't hurt (unless you somehow get on FFA farms), but it really won't help that much in the long run.

Focus on building one-way backlinks to your site through article submissions, blog posts/comments, social bookmarking, or even using a "link wheel" (see my signature for free info)

Thank you Jeff this is exactly the response I was looking for. The only reason I wanted to try it in the first place was because I have software that automates the process and builds the web pages for me but if its not worth it, I'm not gonna waste my time.

Thank you,
Devin

About the reciprocal in Directory Site it is call excessive reciprocal according to Google Webmaster guidelines:

Your site's ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity. However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google's webmaster guideline and can negatively impact your site's ranking in search results. Examples of link schemes can include:

• Links intended to manipulate PageRank
• Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
• Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you.")
• Buying or selling links that pass PageRank

The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it. Before making any single decision, you should ask yourself the question: Is this going to be beneficial for my page's visitors?
It is not only the number of links you have pointing to your site that matters, but also the quality and relevance of those links. Creating good content pays off: Links are usually editorial votes given by choice, and the buzzing blogger community can be an excellent place to generate interest.

Avoid reciprocal linking. There are loads of ways to build high PR, varied, diverse IP one way links using resources on this forum alone, you just need to use your eyes ;-)