Getting a reciprocal link is basically a link exchange or trade between you and another website. It is quite simply a case of contacting another webmaster and asking to swap links. The likes of Google, award this type of link with less authority than an inbound link as it is easier to do and gives less of a reflection on the quality of the site. However, reciprocal links can be successful when kept highly relevant to the topic of your site, ensuring you are seen to have a coherent theme which helps secure higher SERPs rankings based on relevance.
While PageRank is less important than it used to be, link exchanges often work by trading links to similarly ranked sites. That’s not to say that if you are new on the scene and have not yet got a PageRank, webmasters won’t exercise integrity and take a call on your site’s potential when deciding whether to link with you or not.