Marcia - 2:10 am on Apr 12, 2007 (gmt 0)

I'm about sure there is an SEO site somewhere containing a page on SEO standards and spam which in paraphrase says, "the job of an SEO is to improve the quality, quantity, clarity, and value of a website."

Clarity: I've got something written on a page somewhere that describes SEO as just that, or something similar, without mention of spam, though. Roughly paraphrased, it's defining SEO as constructing a site so that it's made clear to the search engines what the site (or page) is about.

not to make sure you vary inbound link text percentage by at least N or greater. (Which if you do intentionally, for the sole purpose of increasing (or not decreasing) your rankings in a given search engine...

How about if people who insist or strongly "suggest" links be done in a certain way stop insisting on controlling the process and let at least "some" happen naturally, as nature intended. ;)

...would be just as manipulative and 'fake natural' as requesting identical link text for the same reason.)

I've theorized that it isn't the fact that some sites have reciprocal links that's a problem, but that just that very thing may contribute to a problem - insisting that certain link text and descriptive text be used for the recips back.