portentint - 5:27 pm on Apr 22, 2008 (gmt 0)

Reciprocal linking is a bad technique. Sorry.

"Excessive" reciprocal linking will actually cause penalties. But chances are you'll get far less value from traded links than from one-way links. So frances' example is the one that makes the most sense: They saw a competitor move up because not ALL of their links were reciprocal.

Best to mix it up a little, and rely on good link bait as your primary driver of authority.