I think most people will tell you to build one way links whenever possible and do not underestimate the power of the diversity of your links.
Link exchange is most effective in hyper-niche markets where getting back-links from authority sites are almost impossible.

Bottom line: a few link exchanges will help but don't base your entire strategy on them. Get links from directories, web 2.o sites, blog commenting in niche blogs, video sharing sites, etc.

I dont do any reciprocal linking any more....

Just build links in articles/blog posts blog commenting forum profiles etc etc

agree with ONEWOLF...it's better to make one way links...it's the most effective and reliable way to make good backlinks...good luck =)

Link exchanges can work, but they are often not as good as one-way links. Think of it this way. Your friend tells you that there is this really great product. You ask him why he is telling you about it and he says one of two answers:

1) the product is really good and he is not getting compensated (one-way backlink)
2) he is affiliated with the company making the product (link exchange)

While this isn't a perfect model, I think this is one good way of thinking about it.

back links are good, the better quality backlinks you have the better your SEO results will be, layered backlinks are always a good idea, when you effectively develop a multi layered approach to building back links, your score increases, it just makes sense to do what you can to create the best off page SEO that you can...

well its working pretty well but when you are getting links from relative or authority websites/blogs. however, we prefer to go with 3 way linking and it helps.

I think this can be a good strategy in small, uncompetitive niches where you can get a few links from link directories, social bookmarks as well as directory submissions and see your site getting near the first page of Google.

Yeah, never do reciprocial backlining... Most of the times the other person would remove your website as soon as possible

Link exchanging helps, but one way links are better.

Call this shady but I used to do this a lot until I got too busy for it and it works great.

1) Make an account at linkmarket.net (reciprocal link exchange site)

2) Create a "links" page and go ahead and link back to linkmarket.net. This should be your first "job" in your queue.

3) Wait a day or two and you should have 20-30 people wanting to exchange links with you.

4) "Accept" those requests and then they'll link to your site.

5) Now, you have the obligation to link back to them but you have 30 days to do it.

Here's the best part, you don't HAVE to link back to them. In 30 days when you haven't linked back to them, they'll get a notification to take your link off of their site because you didn't reciprocate. The cool thing is that MOST of the time, they're too lazy to take your link down. So now you have a free 1-way backlink from that site.

From experience, hundreds of sites will want to link to you within the first couple of weeks and all you have to do is hit "Accept" and you have a bunch of free backlinks.

I used to check my LM account every 15 days or so and just hit Accept on all of the requests and just rinse and repeat. You can call this shady or whatever but it'll get you a boatload of links. A lot of the links pages actually have PR as well.

Link exchange is very helpful when building link popularity. One of the best ways to get links is using directories, blogs and articles. Yes link exchange is still worthwhile to do but your directive should be to get one way links, since these will really boost your search engine results. When gaining one way links make sure you are using keywords in your anchor text, this will help with the one way link.

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