Reno - 1:45 am on Feb 28, 2010 (gmt 0)

When Google says:

Examples of link schemes can include: * Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you.")

That's as clear as mud. Trading links is by definition "Link to me and I'll link to you". So they throw the word "excessive" in as a qualifier -- can anyone point me to a page where the word "excessive" is defined? Is it excessive for a small site to have 100 link exchanges? Is it excessive for a big site to have 1000 link exchanges? What about 10,000? I have no idea what "excessive" means, and my guess is most webmaster/siteowners have no idea as well. So people err on the side of caution, so as to not incur the wrath of the Gods. And thus the practice of trading links starts to look too risky -- a practice that was around long before Google -- because no one knows for sure where the line has been drawn.

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