Janet — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 06:26:22 +0000

Megan wrote: They're just doing it for the PR, it's got nothing to do with the site or the users. It's not much different than when people put a bunch of keywords in small print at the bottom of the page. It's got nothing to do with humans, which I think is bad.

I think a links page that contains links to other sites with similar content is a valuable tool for visitors and does help with the PR in the process. I personally can't stand sites that have general links and basically include anyone who wants to be included. That is not useful for site visitors. I don't think you can compare a quality directory with small keywords hidden on the bottom of a page. IMO. It is also good for new sites to get better rankings on msn and yahoo. I recently started a resources directory on my site, but am only including websites that have content similar to my business. Some are reciporcal links others are not. Here is an example of a valuable links directory. http://www.dcresource.com/links/ In my opinion this information is helpful to the site visitors. I also don't believe it has nothing to do with humans since I get many visitors a month being listed on this particular page and others I am listed on. "Humans" are clicking on my site.

Quality directories are good for site visitors, help with PR and also deliver traffic to the linked site.

Busy — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 21:16:47 +0000

Most of my sites have related links but never any exchanged links

dojo — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 19:22:31 +0000

I have links for the members that have provided unique articles. their links show throughout the site and the community. But putting links just for the sake of that PR seems a bit too much for me.

Megan — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 14:29:52 +0000

I think it's kind of rediculous really. They're just doing it for the PR, it's got nothing to do with the site or the users. It's not much different than when people put a bunch of keywords in small print at the bottom of the page. It's got nothing to do with humans, which I think is bad. And apparently Google has placed less importance on reciprocal links, so they need to be one-way to have any effect.

I'd like to do some really meaningful partnerships - real cross promotion (not some obscure link in the corner). I think partnerships should be much more than link exchanges - a partnership should be a realy meaningful relationship between the two sites. Supporting each other, actively referring visitors to each other, things like that. You could also do content exchanges if there's enough overlap on the topic. Stuff that's really mutually beneficial rather than just for PR.