Link exchanges

[waqid]

I have quite a few legal clients and 90% of my clients top competitors are doing 1:1 link exchanges and they have been doing it for years. Other industries Dont seem as prevalent.

I am just boggled every time someone says link exchanges don't work, will get penalized, or value is not passed. Its been working for my competitors....Legal SEO's seem to focus heavily on link exchanges.

I have yet to do link exchanges, but am about to get started with a resourceful directory of local businesses on my clients site. Some will be linking back, but not all. Fear of penalization is lurking in my mind.

Does anyone have any real data on this? Does anyone have an example of doing this properly and an example of how not to do it?

I appreciate any feedback you can give.

Thank you,

[RobertFisher]

Waquid

In the legal field you see it a lot. While I cannot point out any place where there is a penalty for it that I have seen I will tell you that without it I am able to add links and pass those above. The question becomes is it the links they are using or is it the content we are using, etc. that eventually moves us ahead?

I will leave it to you to decide, but in the legal marketing arena I have not seen any penalty for it. To my knowledge there is no benefit....

Best.