Why 2-way link exchange not works anymore?

2-way link exchange also called as reciprocal link exchange is a direct link between two websites. The process is simple: You add the partner web link to your web or blog and the partner adds your link. 2-way link exchange used to be very popular and easy way how to improve Google PageRank quite fast. Google took this linking as a positive point to your website reputation which subsequently enhanced your website PR.

Iif the link exchange would be done in natural way, you will link only with the websites which are really interesting or useful for you so you want to share the information with your readers. But this natural approach works better in theory than in real life. The most of reciprocal link exchanges are result of agreement between two website owners so we can not talk about natural link exchanging but about a trade. The extreme examples are link farms which were benefit from huge amount of backlinks. This way Internet equilibrium was disturbed. And Google have to take some steps to prevent this kind of behavior.
The easy way how to discourage people from excessive 2-way link exchanging was to decrease its SEO value. Although there is no official declare about this stešp, there are no doubts that it was done. This step was wise and it really works. People are less interested in classic 2-way link exchanging, or exchange only with old and well established websites with high PR.

Is link exchanging useless?
But I don't think the link exchanging is useless, it can still influence your Google Page Rank but the times of 2-ways link exchanges are gone. If you want to benefit from backlinks today, you need one-way links. These are the most powerful back links you can get and their power was not decreased by Google. It is because one-way links are not the results of agreements. These are the links pointing to your without your link back (so only one site is profiting). Google believes they emerge naturally to share useful and interesting websites. But it is very hard to get them.

How to get one-way backlinks?
Of course there is a way hot to get one-way links, people are smart enough to find the solution for every obstacle. The answer is 3-way link exchange. Although there is no evidence that 3-way link exchange works as good as one-way link exchange, most of web site owners believe they are the best solution for current situation. This way you get powerful one-way links to your site. However I think in the future (and maybe it is already in the present) Google will be (is) able to uncover 3-way link exchanges and mark them as unnatural, so their SEO importance will be downgraded.