The LinksManager Help Desk gets a fair amount of calls like this: "Hey, my Search Engine Optimization (SEO) person just told me I should flush my links. What's up with that?"

We could say that what's up with that is a case of lot of Black Hat so-called SEO gurus (black-hat being defined, in this case, as con artists who take money and return hot air) having to tell clients something to cover up the fact that they know as much about the Web in general and search engines in particular as Paris Hilton does about sobriety.

We could also say that many of the callers have misinterpreted legitimate SEO experts' advice about staying away from linking schemes, bad-neighborhood links, link farms and other forms of SE spamming as applying to all forms of linking.

But the fact is, and there's no sense denying it, that whatever we said about the subject would be suspect because we are, after all, in the linking-solution business.

So what we've done is compile a short list of ten recently published comments on the validity and desirability of linking that were made by ten of the most prominent SEO and web marketing experts on earth. Beginning with one from a key player on the Google home team itself …

"If it's good for your users, link to it ... I link to friends who link to me; we like each others' sites, we think that folks who visit our sites might like them, too. And that's fine!” -- Google SEO Stratigist Adam Lasnik

·        "To believe that reciprocal links are a dead strategy is silly” -- NetPOST and URLwire Founder Eric Ward

·        "Now more than ever, major search engines place such a high importance on linking that without them no website-no matter how popular the product-will place highly” -- Web-OP CEO David Bailey

·        "Search engine optimization is basically divided into various parts ... link exchange is an important part.” -- Scott White SEO Expert Consulting, Co.

·        If you want to rank well, acquire targeted traffic and build brand, you'll need an effective link building and marketing strategy as part of your overall Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program. -- Debra Mastaler, President/CEP Alliance-Link, Secretary/Treasurer  Search Engine Marketing Association of North America

·        "Reciprocal linking is not dead. Aim for real, live human beings. Aim for obtaining traffic and not backlinks. Aim for obtaining attention and not page rank. Stop aiming for the affections of a mathematical computation and aim for commendations from breathing individuals.” -- WebMasterWorld Link Development Forum moderator Sugarrae

·        "Search engine placements ... will come naturally after you create a network of related links that will bring valuable information for the users. A network of related links will bring you targeted traffic as well.” -- HighPower Sites Founder Scott Lindsay

·        "Two-way links, from reciprocal link exchanges, count toward your link popularity.” -- Leroy Chan, Expert Author, EzineArticles.com

·        "There's  no reason any search engine should complain about a gentleman's agreement between people who want to link to each other.” -- Mike Grehan , best-selling author of Search Engine Marketing: The Essential Best Practice Guide

·        "Look at the first page results for any search term and you can bet the top contenders are already building links. Linking is ...  absolutely necessary to help boost your site in the search engines natural results pages.” -- David Tucker, RightNow Communications, Inc.

If a search-engine optimization company tells you to remove your links pages, stop and think about what you are being asked to do. Then take another look at the above quotes.  Note that all these world-class search-engine experts agree that links are a desirable, even a very necessary, component of a proper website -- as long as they are good, relevant, ethically obtained links.

Now take a look at the links on your site. Do they meet the "good, relevant, ethically obtained" standard? Are they links to quality sites that add value to your end user's visit? Did you obtain them by using an editor-based software solution like LinksManger rather than a black-hat full-duplex link-exchange network that forces you to link to sites without editorial discretion?

If the answers to these questions are "yes," take any suggestion that you eliminate your links with the largest grain of salt you can find.  Chances are the SEO "guru" who gave you that advice is just trying to justify his or her existence (and fee) and is not playing with the same number of expertise cards in his deck as Adam Lasnik, Eric Ward, Mike Grehan and the other real pros quoted above.

Properly managed link exchanges have always been and always will be one of web's most efficient ways to generate qualified traffic interested in your product or business while simultaneously adding perceived value to your site as seen through the electronic "eyes" of SE spiders.

As Google's Adam Lasnik said, "If it's good for your users, link to it."

To which we would add, "If it's not good for your users, don't go anywhere near it."

If you take both those pieces of advice and apply them with reasonable intelligence and a certain amount of diligence, your site's traffic is virtually sure to grow and prosper.