Link exchanges when it all started was a noble idea — I link to your site so my visitors can check out your site, and you link my site so your visitors can also check out my site. A tit-for-tat exchange.

Until link exchange figured prominently in the search engines algorithms. Then the process of link exchange became muddled with trickeries.

For those requiring link exchanges, some webmasters will show a page where the reciprocal link is found — but that page cannot be found anywhere on their website because it is well hidden away from visitors’ view. That page’s sole purpose is to show potential reciprocal link partners where their link resides. Or they may put you in their link exchange page, only to remove your link after you have put their link on your pages. Then they end up with one way inbound links. Smart, eh?

Thankfully, the search engines especially Google have started to catch up on this game, and now penalize sites that links to sites totally unrelated to their theme.

For us, we believe in the inate goodness of men and trust that whoever requests for a link to their site honor the agreement that they will link back to us. Alas, we found a LOT of sites that have removed their links to us, leaving them with a one-way link from our site. Not fair! Some of these even begged us to put their links to our pages, sending us several pleas until we relented. Only to find now that they have removed their link back to us.

Because of this, and search engine concerns, we have suspended (or make that “removed”) our Add URL section. The form is live now, but any submissions are automatically deleted. We do not intend to accept any more reciprocal link exchanges. We are also cleaning up our links section, removing all those sites that have benefited from their inbound link from us. We will also revamp the entire concept of our Recommended Sites page from a place where reciprocal links were placed, to only the best of the category that we would be proud to recommend to our visitors.

We’re done with reciprocal link exchanges.