Non reciprocal and reciprocal links. Do we need them?

 

Actually, the answer is yes........and no.
What is a reciprocal link? It is a link to a page that is linked back to ours.
Of course, a non reciprocal link is a link to a page that is not directly linked to ours and vice versa.
Page rank is associated in some ways to this links. You see, the more links there are to our pages, then the more important Google tm or other search engines (SEs) think our page is. Non reciprocal links to our page (not on our page) add a lot more weight than reciprocal links. SEs think that if a page is willing to link to ours and not get a link back, then our page must be important. But that´s not always true. The importance of the pages that link to ours is also accounted for. You can get 100 free hosting pages of your own and then link them to your special page with non reciprocal links and you wouldn't get any rank; it is an equation of Zero * Zero = Zero.
You have to get links from pages that rank well.
Then comes the other side of the question. Can I have any page link mine? And the answer is NO.
SEs think of the web as a neighborhood. If you are linked to a good neighborhood then you must be good. If you are linked to a bad "hood" then you must be bad and they rank you.
So linking to pages with illegal content such as MP3's, Warez, Hackers, etc. will get you a bad ranking. And probably your submission to the directories will not be accepted.

The other point of linking is ANCHOR TEXT.
Anchor text is the text of the hyperlink. Read this two examples:
http://www.elmejorguia.com/shydrager/index.htm
Shy Drager Disease Review
You inmediately see the difference although both links point to the same page. Not only does this make a difference in the way people see the link and get interested in clicking it, but also when SEs see the link, they associate this words with your site and you climb ranks in those Keywords for any associated searchs.
Now you get the point?
Your links should have good anchor text that is related to the keywords that you want to exploit.
But SEs also see KEYWORD SPAM when they see too many links with the same phrasing so you have to use slightly different phrases each time someone links your page.