Some people are saying that exchanging links is good while others are saying that only backlinks help. Below is an article by someone who believes that exchanging links should be avoided. What's funny is that most of the links their backlink tool generates is from websites who want you to exchange links. http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-build-backlinks-article-16.php http://www.webconfs.com/backlink-builder.php
If you are just exchanging, it is probably close to neutral, but it could be beneficial if it is in the same subject area. Drive traffic to each other. Rich
Exchanging links benifits your traffic without hurting your hip pocket, but probably wont improve your website rankings. That's not such a big deal because it's traffic that matters more than pagerank (or any other ranking system).
Exchanging links can be good or bad. If you'r a starting blog or site, do exchange then. It will get your site in the picture and ranked in search engines. If you're a pagerank addic, look out where you link to. Just keep in mind, everyone can link to you, with almost no problems. But if you link to others, you're leaking PageRank. it all depends on what you want to do with your link exchange
Exchanging links is a GOOD thing IF you exchange links with websites that are relevant and are getting traffic. As someone else above has said - traffic is much more important that PR. I see a lot of traffic from some of the sites I have exchanged links with.
recipricol linking won't do anything for page rank or serp placement, however it can be another source of traffic Just be careful that you are not linking to a site that google considers to be a bad neighbouhood like link farms and crap like that
The problem is a lot of people who want to do link exchanges with you have poor quality sites or brand new sites. You won't see to many good sites begging to trade links with you.
Done good it won\'t hurt (not having PR in mind). Treat it like a booster, not main technique. You may try some link exchange systems or three-way linking schemes, check it for yourself it may be good for you.
Nothing wrong with reciprocal links. They may be a devalued, i.e. worth less than one-way links, but they're not worthless. The only problem is when reciprocal linking is your only link building strategy but when used with other linkbuilding strategies, such a directory submissions, forum posting, social bookmarking, etc., they do help.
I say they are good for traffic only if they are on a site that have people who would be interested in your niche. If you are looking for PR, it is worthless in most cases unless you find someone willing to trade that has a much higher PR. Find relevant sites and you can increase your traffic quite a bit. One good example is a site selling a product exchanging with a site that reviews those products. This is a win for both site because they will draw traffic from each other.
exchange link is two way linking its not so good for SE. if the site have higher PR it will work other wise there is chance of degreesing yours PR
Exchanging links are good with sites that will bring you targeted traffic. Google webmaster guidelines state that excessive reciprocal links are a link scheme.
Exchanging links won't hurt you as long as you don't go overboard (Google says exchanging links is fine as long as you don't do it excessively). At most, Google will ignore them. However, sometimes it can prove to be beneficial. I think you could start building up backlinks by exchanges, and then when your site is bigger it'll generate those links on its own.
Exchange links with sites you trust and are similarly related. You will be rewarded because you can control link exchanges, but you can't control one-way links.
Best thing to do is try it out. I personally do not believe it will decrease your SERPs. It may help them slightly but not as much as one way links. And yes it can be a great source of traffic. So it really depends on what your primary goal is: SERP or Traffic. I for one would exchange links
It's good if it's not the only thing you're doing to get backlinks. It should be a small part of your link building strategy. You should also consider article submissions, press releases and social bookmarking