Link exchanges and liability

For the most part you shouldn't be concerned with liability when linking to another site. You don't bear any responsibility for what happens on those sites.

There are a few exceptions, for example the DMCA makes linking to information on how to circumvent copyright illegal. You probably want to avoid the ovbious like child-porn and illegal websites, but you really shouldn't worry about being liable for linking to sites unless by doing so you are breaking a law (for example using external "disposable" servers to distribute illegal content is illegal not because of the external link but because of the illegitimate enterprise).

All that being said, link exchanges are dangerous for SEO reasons. If not done right you may end up hurting yourself. I don't recommend that people who don't understand SEO well perform link exchanges unless they are careful and selective.

I was also concerned about what if I allow a link to a website that offers medical procedures in another country that are legal there, but illeagle in the U.S..

Also, does the placement of the links affect SEO? For example, using the bottom of a web page to display the links instead of the top so that the search engine will have picked up all of the important stuff before picking up outside links?

The act itself of divulging information about something illegal is not always illegal. However sometimes it's actually illegal to merely divulge information, and those rare cases are what you should watch out for. For the average webmaster the most common would be related to copyright infringement (e.g. sharing music on your site, showing people how to remove dvd protection for illegal purposes).



Yes, nearly every single detail about every element on your every page (and every page that links to it) makes a difference, so an answer to your next question may require a book's worth of knowledge. That's why I caution you against what you are trying to do. As you describe it, the link exchange you plan, if discovered by search engine QA, would likely result in your removal from the search engine.

That's good advice, maybe I would be better off leaving the links off of my main pages and build one partners page.

Everything I've read about link exchanges says that it will improve your page ranking. But I guess there is a wrong way to do it.

Anyway, further research on those sites revealed that it was a scam. So anybody getting link exchange offers had better check out the links! Most of them are obvious scams, but this one almost looked legitimate.