Yahoo Content Guidelines

Seems Yahoo has conflicted feelings about reciprocal linking.

[Baraccus]

One of my sites was penalized by Yahoo - when I asked why, I received the canned response about not meeting the content guidelines. One of the reasons they gave that sites are most often penalized was "Use of reciprocal link programs". However, in their own guidelines to get better rankings, they say to corraborate with other webmasters to develop a linking network of relevant sites (sounds like "get relevant reciprocal links" to me).

Any ideas of this seemingly contradictory instruction?

[randle]

No, very tricky business here for sure. It is our belief most of the penalties people have suffered from Yahoo are linking related.

[martinibuster]

Same with Google and other engines. It's against Google rules to engage in link schemes, but that's what recips are, and the intent is probably 99% for getting better ranking. Heck, many webmasters even have a blurb on their link pages talking about how good it is for search ranking (Oh goody, what a footprint).

The issue boils down to the point at which the gray line turns black, and having the common sense to know the difference.