1. The principal plan of any linking method is to get more targeted traffic to your website. Reciprocal linking can work for or against you in this matter depending on the site that you exchange links with. If you exchange links with sites that receive high traffic, some of that traffic may be diverted to your site. On the other hand, if you exchange links with a low traffic site, you may deflect some of your traffic to the other site without seeing a similar return. The answer is to exchange reciprocal links with a site with a page rank no lower than one level below yours and to try to exchange links with many sites with a higher page rank. Ideally, you would seek to exchange links with sites that have at least a PR 4.
2. Never exchange links with everyone that hidden wiki asks. What value is there in exchanging links with a site that sells shoes when your site is about Internet Marketing? Anyone that visits the shoe site will be looking for information concerning shoes, not Internet marketing and very few will click on your link regardless of how high the page rank is for the shoe site. The key here is to exchange links only with sites that are relevant to your site or to your keywords.
3. Avoid exchanging links with sites that have a massive link directory. If your site is listed on page 31 in your category of another site’s link directory, few people will ever see your link. Although a link will be generated to your site for the search engines, you will not receive much traffic from the link exchange. Try to exchange links with sites where your link will be displayed on the first, or at the most, the second page of another site’s link directory.
4. Establish online relationships. Exchanging links with other relevant websites is a grand way to start building partnerships with other webmasters and may open the door for future joint venture requests.