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I am asking this for two reasons: Courtesy: Is it common courtesy to reciprocate with a link back if somebody has linked to your site? SEO: Does linking back affect your rankings at all? A blog has linked to one of my clients' sites as part of a round-up of "top 100 best" within their industry. They have also sent us an email suggesting that we add a link from our site saying that we've been listed. Of course, I understand that it is in my clients' interest for us to advertise on their site that they've been listed in a Top 100 list... However, it got me thinking (as more of a general question) - does reciprocating a link ever affect it's value at all? ie. Is two-way linking ever considered part of a link exchange in the eyes of Google, and does it penalize you at all for that?