Is this illegal or not?

”link exchanges ("Link to me and I'll link to you") or partner pages”

[cnvi]

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en [support.google.com]

Illegal or not? I ask because the fly fisherman should be able to link to the fly rod-smith.

The tennis racket manufacturer should be able to link to the racquet string manufacturer.

The marriage coordinator should be allowed to link to her fave DJs...

The list is limitless.

And at ANY quantity as long as the links are relevant and benefit the end user.

Please discuss.

[edited by: phranque at 3:15 am (utc) on Dec 30, 2019]
[edit reason] please see ToS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[Shepherd]

Not.

The brunettes of the world have no standing for class action regardless of how much the gentleman prefers blonds.

[not2easy]

Google's guidelines are just that. Guidelines. A list of their preferences. They do not in any way prevent sites from linking to whatever they want. They request that you avoid "Link to me and I'll link to you" type schemes but they don't prevent you from doing that if you want. The Guidelines merely advise you not to expect to benefit with their company as a result of doing it.

[cnvi]

but i linked exchanged w 15 relevant sites and got a stern working via search console 1week later. How is that legal?

[not2easy]

A GSC warning? Big deal. GSC is just another part of the same company that advised against link exchanges. They may have thought they were doing you a favor to tell you their opinion, but it does not prevent you from doing it. You can run your business as you see fit and they will definitely do the same. Now, if these different businesses clash, then you decide to make changes or they decide to make changes, but every business gets to decide how they want to operate for their best benefit. I'm sure you would not do 15 link exchanges if they were of no benefit to you.

Is Google required to please us? They do what they do and we do what we do. Occasionally our paths intersect, but they continue on their way, making decisions that benefit their interests. Just like any business. How is that illegal?

[cnvi]

How is that illegal?

Because they control access to the internet...

[youtu.be...]

[not2easy]

Now I can only disagree. Google does not control my access to the internet.

[RhinoFish]

If you work to get backlinks, you're punished.
If you don't get backlinks, you're punished.
You're supposed to build great content or have low prices, and this will get you "natural" backlinks, hahahaaa, nope!
G rewards many who paid for or schemed to get backlinks.
It's so easy to find organic searches on G that are so obviously not good for the consumer, yet are dominated by folks with amazing backlink profiles.
C'est la vie.

[engine]

Natural linking is fine, but over abuse resulted in a sanitised version of linking being of great value.

Linking is not legal or illegal, it's simply rules laid down by a business, just most businesses have.

Just get on with linking that is of value to the site visitors, and that will be of far greater value than any off topic link. It's very easy to see what links are on-topic, and are not, whether it's a manual review or a bot.

[tangor]

I only link out if it MEANS something to the USER.

I do NOT seek links from others (I don't know who they are or if they even apply).

I do not turn away links, though I will disavow those which are hinky.

Keep it simple!

[n0tSEO]

Is Google required to please us? They do what they do and we do what we do. Occasionally our paths intersect, but they continue on their way, making decisions that benefit their interests. Just like any business. How is that illegal?
-- by not2easy

THIS.

Google created its own search engine guidelines for webmasters to follow in order to be included in their index. We're not being forced to follow them. They're not laws, so there's no enforcement. Google is not a legislator nor a government, so if you do something that's not in their good book... who cares? Do what you want to do and what makes sense for you to do. It's your site!

We'll not always agree with Google on this or that, which is good -- it's always good when people disagree on something, because it means they're using their brains. ;)

So feel free to do link exchanges -- my blogging community used to thrive on those back in 2006 and they made for a happy network of bloggers who cared for each other. We had weekly blog hopping and blog comment reciprocating tasks in our community. Link exchanges were THE community. Ah the old times. :) I still love doing that when I can.