Benefits of Link Exchanging

I know there are benefits to link exchanging and I have had a lot of success with SEO from link exchanges in the past, but Google is continually getting smarter.

I would think that in the near future - or maybe even now - that Google will not boost a site's page rank if it finds that there is a reciprocal link on every page that it links to. To clarify: if my page links to ten other pages and they all link back to me, wouldn't Google say to itself "This guy's doing link exchanges simply for a better page rank"?

Thoughts?

I think that Google is already throwing in the towel to links back and forth.

I guess what they are looking for, is if your site is good enough, to be on someone else's web page as a link, then you are doing pretty well, and your site has some Merritt.

If they are going to do this then, one way links are going to golden. It will be the same as PR was when it first came out.

I think it will be hard to get the word out that two way links are dead. I can think of some sites that are specifically for inhibiting two way links.

:roll eyes:

What sites are inhibiting two-way links?

Is Google wise to the three-way link exchange?
As in: A -> B, B -> C, C -> A.

I don't think Google will completely disregard the reciprocal linking scheme. It's so common now anyway. For example, let's say you have two sites, A & B; A has a PR of 1, and B has a PR of 6. A is a fan of site B and wants to link to them, so A sends B a link exchangre request. You can bet that if B actually links back to A, B isn't doing it because it will help B's PR, rather B linked to A because A is actually a cool site.

On the other hand, if site C and D both have PR of 1 and link to eachother, you can bet they both suck and Google will disregard this as an attempt at rank improvement.

Thoughts?

Three wise, I don't think they have the processing power to look at all of them. It's a matter of sheer size.

As for linking a PR + to a PR - site, that is a good improvement, and google SHOULD see that as a 'good' link.

When a PR - links to a PR+ there is more things to look at.
Google should look at
1) Is the content similar (+)
2) Is the link surrounded by text of that content (+)
3) is the link surrounded by other links (-)
ect ect ect...

I think the fact that two way links are soooo common would be a good reason for Google to say...lets see how these sites do if I stiffen the requirement for accepting that link into my good graces.