Question about links on blogs

[montymcmahon]

I have a number of blogs, but I'll use this one as an example: http://www.totalpackers.com/.

If you look in the left column, we have "friends" links and "more Packers" links. In every case, these were links that we traded or links to our own sites. We get traffic from a number of these sites because of the link exchange, but I'm worried having these is hurting our SEO (as well these sites posting our links).

It's crossed my mind that I should remove all these links from our site and ask that our links be removed from their sites.

Would that be overreacting? Or is this something I should do?

Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Monty

[WesleySmits]

These link exchanges should be beneficial to the user and relevant to the pages.
If this is not the case, then they should be no-followed like this:

[Friend link](http://www.frienddomain.com)

This way you won't have any SEO issues but you'll keep the links in place and any traffic that may come through those links.

[TakeshiYoung]

Google has devalued sitewide sidebar links over the years, but they shouldn't be hurting your SEO. However, if you want to pass the maximum amount of link value, you'll want to include links from within relevant pieces of content rather than throwing them in your navigation.

[montymcmahon]

Thanks guys. Appreciate the input. I think I know how to handle these now.