Reciprocal Links?

[ckelly06]

Hello,

I'm just getting started with my forum, and I'm trying to get visitors by listing my site in various directories. Many of them ask for a reciprocal link.

Does reciprocal linking defeat the purpose of getting the backlink from an SEO experience, or is it still worthwhile to get these links even if I have to link back to them? What about finding a place for these links on my site? Having a "Links" section seems kind of 1990s to me -- does anyone know if this is punished by Google's algorithm?

Thanks for your help!

Chris

[floridaflatlander]

If they ask for one, I guess you need list them if you want them to list you.

here's some hints http://onlinebusiness.about.com/od/searchengineoptimization/a/search-ranking.htm

According to this if they just throw you in with everone else that's not good, links need to be grouped by categories.

Content of course and being linked to by the big boys(large sites) seem to be the most important.

[tumbleweed]

http://smf4me.com does not require reciprocal links unless you want your site to be featured.

[ckelly06]

Thanks, guys!