Ask anybody who calls themselves SEO whether reciprocal linking is good or bad and you’ll get almost instantaneously a “it’s bad” response. Yes, reciprocal linking is considered bad. I’m not talking one or two reciprocal links. It’s somewhere around tens to hundreds of links.
Try getting 100 reciprocal links and search engines will flag you as link farming. But what about those big network blogs. Say, B5 Media or Gawker Media. Visit one of their member blog and take a look at their sidebar. Count how many links to their other member sites/blog are there. Is that link farming?
They’re all interlinking with each other. They’re reciprocal links. Now wonder, it’s easy for them to get to PR 7. But should they be penalized? Of course. Are they? I don’t know. Now, if they can get away with it with their uber popular blogs, maybe we can too. Hmmm. I would like to experiment on this one.