Reciprocal or One to One Linking 

The most common and easiest form of linking is the one to one linking; aptly named reciprocal linking. Website X links to website Y and website Y in turn reciprocates with a link that points to website X.

Reciprocal linking is most popular and works well only because each website owner or webmaster feels they gained in the  link exchange. No one likes to trade where they feel they did not get something in return.

To understand and trade links which will bring value to the internet community we must grasp the basics of linking. Links are placed on a site to provide more useful resources to your website visitor. For instance a website that sells accessories for horse back riders may point to another site that has details on different breeds of horses. In the keen eye of Google and other search engines this is a valuable linkout (link that points to another site) and shows a genuine link or resource. This link does deserve merit and would gain notice with search engines.

A poor understanding of links has created a situation where website owners and even some webmasters who reciprocate links with just about any site. Google gives very little value to link exchanges that are clearly that; just link exchanges. In other words A links to B and B links back to A, where A and B don't have anything in common.

Many sites create web pages named "links", "resources" etc and just cram them with all sorts of links which they have exchanged with other site owners who in turn have done the same thing. Why do they do this? Because they heard it from someone or read it somewhere that having links on your site will increase your PageRank and or will help get your site listed higher on the SERP.

If you stuff your website with links, it may initially seem to increase your PageRank, but once the search engine figure out what you are up to they will quickly drop your ranking and it will happen swiftly. Remember links are an additional source of information for your website visitors.

Link exchanges work well when they are between sites that have content relevance. A site on bees reciprocating links to a site which sells shoes has no relevant content to each other and therefore has no value. On the other hand the same site on bees; link exchanging with a site that sells honey has merit and value.

Many reciprocal links although genuine and well intended may not get value because the search spiders do not have a way to distinguish one from the other. Firstly, if the site content is not relevant then there is no real value in the links. Secondly, if it looks like the link exchange is for the sake of just an exchange then again no value is placed on the trade. The second scenario mainly occurs when a whole bunch of links are stuffed into a web page to try and "show" links.

How do you work around a situation where you have an honest link exchange and would like positive result from it. Well instead of stuffing your links with 50 others on one web page, place the link on one of your web pages that has even more content relevance to your outlink site and the reciprocating site should also do the same. Even better and much more valuable is to place links within a paragraph, sentence or the content material of your page. For example; we have a site that allows you to exchange and build natural links.

This is a great way to include a link within the content of your paragraph and has great value and merit. Again, do not overdo this within a page or a site, since it will look unnatural and fake even . Linking has to be natural, meaningful and provide value to your users. Remember you do not want to link just for the sake of linking.

This method although very beneficial takes time and effort. Both parties must understand the merit of this technique and should find ways to reciprocate links so they not only add value to their site and help send traffic in both directions but also show a natural link building process to the search engines. This sort of linking is also referred to as contextual linking.

Majority of users shy away from this method due to the effort it takes, so they just place links on a "links" page and feel that it is enough. Yes, you can have a resources page, but be sure that those links have relevance to your site and are limited in number. Quality always outweighs quantity.