Non-reciprocal "reciprocal" links

[jdbnd]

Any thoughts on how Google would view the following situation?

- you have a site that, as part of its content, contains listings of certain specific nonprofit entities throughout the site (i.e. not concentrated on a "Links" page or anything)
- some of said entities also link to your site, from sub-sections of their own site
- the links were not simultaneous (i.e. you linked to them long before they linked to you, or else they linked to you and then months later you added a link to them) since there was no quid pro quo and the nonprofits mostly don't care if you link to them or not

Would Google:

1) completely disregard these links to your site?
2) dampen the weight they place on these links?
3) treat them the same as any non-reciprocal link?

Would you risk penalties of some sort if a large portion of your links were of this type?

Look forward to people's thoughts...

[martinibuster]

1) completely disregard these links to your site?

Your assumption that Google disregards reciprocal links is mistaken. That is an SEO myth.

2) dampen the weight they place on these links?

Another SEO myth.

3) treat them the same as any non-reciprocal link?

Google will treat them the same as any other link. Reciprocity only tells the search engines there is a relationship of possible relevance between the two sites.

Would you risk penalties of some sort if a large portion of your links were of this type?

There is no certainty either way, so you'll only receive opinions. But it certainly would stand out because it's unusual.

Non-reciprocal "reciprocal" links

Reciprocal is reciprocal, including three-way arrangements.

[jdbnd]

Thank you. Yet another example of why this forum is worth the subscription fee.

[piatkow]

Certainly at one time, I don't know if it is still the case, G would get a but sniffy if you had a lot of inbounds direct to a page which concentrated the reciprocal outbounds. I have never had a problem with natural linking where inbounds go to a the home page and outbounds come from elsewhere in the site.