A link exchange question?

[Jake]

Wordpress links are noFollow by default there are patcher plugins that can change that.

I would not exchange links with a directory, the majority carry very little weight with the search engines, the link power of a page is divided by the number of outgoing links it has, lots on many directory pages.

Link exchange strategies that worked 5 years ago can actually be harmful to ranking, they are easily detected and often depreciated for being exchanges, even 3 way schemes can be ferrited out. Logical exchanges like between a bolt and a nut maker can be good, but a bolt site linking to a perfume site tends to get evaluated as manipulative.