Hi Aua,
The word you may have been looking for is "reciprocal" linking (you link to me so I link to you).
Reciprocal linking isn't/wasn't really a best practice for SEO it's something that SEO's used to do because it was easier to get a link that way.
This was used a lot before the conversation in SEO (in a broad sense) really turned towards providing value instead of just trying to game Google.
It's actually defined by Google as a no-no (if used excessively) on their support pages:
"The following are examples of link schemes which can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results:......
_Excessive link exchanges ("Link to me and I'll link to you") or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking" _
In example it used to work like this;
I reach out to a small business in my area who I want a link from. I explain it's for my SEO and that the more relevant local links I have the more trusted I appear to Google.
In lieu of providing any real value or reason to link to my website (such as killer content that might be useful to the businesses users) I would offer to link back to them if they linked to me. That way, both of our websites were getting a link and Google will love us both.
To summarise;
- No it wasn't best practice (never was as far as I am aware)
- You don't need to link back to the article
