What we have for now ...

Exactly!
We are completely against of "game the search engines" techniques. Nevertheless, there is a real necessity in links exchange. This is when you want to create a well structured catalogue of links which are related or close to your solution. The main aim of such engine is to automatically control the presence of your link on your partners pages but not spaming your site LINKS page with a huge amount of small banners.

Regards,
Dmitry Kresin, ARDAS group (ARDAS group)

The feature set is from one of the more popular ones available for Joomla.
I use this on another site and was quite involved in beta testing and feedback.

Features

** Link Exchange

Enables the module to be used as a Directory or a plain Link Listing or a link Exchange tool

** Banner Exchange

Support for Banner Exchanges in addition to Links

** Create, Edit & Manage One way Links/Banners

Administration to add links of other websites which are uni-directional in nature. This normally happens, when you want to give credit to someone, when you use their software or resources. This can also be those kind of links which you want to link to, but do not expect a link back

** Create, Edit & Manage Two way Links/Banners

Administration to trade and exchange links with other partner websites. The partner must add a link back to you before you add a link to his website

** Multiple Directory Layouts

Provides three different kinds of directory layouts from which the user can pick anyone for display. The URL of the links in the directory do not change when the layouts are switched to one another! The link directory can be displayed in 3 different formats. (TYPE-1, 2, 3).
- TYPE-1: This enables links to be displayed under categories. Categories are listed one in a row sequentially down. (Single column)
- TYPE-2: This enables links to be displayed under categories. Categories are listed two in a row sequentially down. (Two-columns)
- TYPE-3 : Displays all links in the home page of link directory. In this case, even though the links belong to categories, categories are not listed. Users can choose this display option, if there are very few links in the directory.

** Show All Links Feature

Ability to view all the links of a category using the "Show All Links in this Category" and all the links using the "Show All Links"

** Selective and Customizable Pagination

The module provides the ability to have multiple pages to browse through ( pagination ) for TYPE-1,2 & 3 listing types, with option of 5/10/25/50 links per page

** Sorting of links in frontend

Supports sorting of links by link publish date, link rating, number of votes, number of hits and website title have been added in the "Show All Links"

** Display Latest Links in Frontend

The latest n approved links will be displayed in the home page of your link directory. This enables visitors to know the last added or the new links to the website. The "n" is configurable at backend.!

** Configure Categories to accept links

Ability to hide sub categories. Sub categories can be configured to be hidden in the directory if needed

** Number of categories

Ability of the directory can hold any number of categories

** Number of levels of categories

Ability of the directory to have number of levels of sub-categories under each other

** Configurable maximum number of Links in a Category

Directories can be configured to be visible/hidden in frontend

** Display of number of links alongside category names

Number of links for each category and sub category will be displayed in brackets in the frontend link directory along-side category names

** Frontend Google PR and Alexa Rank display

Ability to display Google Page Rank alongside links and banners in frontend. This feature can be switched off/on at backend by the administrator

** Backend Google PR and Alexa Rank display

Ability to display Google Page Rank alongside links and banners in backend. This feature can be switched off/on at backend by the administrator

** Reciprocal Check Feature

When a link is added at frontend of your directory for an exchange, the module will first check your partner website for the existence of a link back to your website. Additionally,
- Ability to check reciprocal link on partner website during link inclusion form submit at frontend.
- Ability to check reciprocal link on partner websites using backend for one or more links in a category
- Ability to check reciprocal link on partner websites using backend for all links in one or more categories
- Ability to change the status of the link automatically, based on the result of the link check
- Displays the timestamp of the last reciprocal link check for each link

** Scheduled Reciprocal Link Checks

This is an automatic link exchange process, which can be scheduled via CRON. Check for all reciprocal links on partner websites. Can be turned on/off at backend.
Additionally, individual links can also be configured to be a part of this scheduled check. Once the checks for all qualifying links are complete, the status of links are updated in database for each checked link and output will be sent by email to site administrator or will be stored as a HTML file for viewing by browser. The output will have partner URL, link status before check, link status after check, check result, possible actions to be taken by the administrator as a result of the check and the partner email address!

** Configurable texts and headings in frontend. 
** Configurable summary of text for link directory. 

This can be used to add text to welcome the user or providing an overview of directory or for similar purposes. Configurable summary of text for the Add Link Form. This can be used for specifying instructions on how to add links etc... Configurable instructions text that is to be displayed on the frontend.

** Email Approval of Exchange Requests

Administrators receive an email when a link/banner is submitted at backend. They can approve the request by clicking on a URL in that email.

** Ability to Auto-Approve exchange requests

Administrators can configure auto approval of exchange requests and even decide if reciprocal check needs to be done or not too!

** Email Notifications to webmasters and partners

- Automatic email notification to webmaster, when there is a new link request using the "Add Link" form
- Automatic email notification to the partner when his link is moved from one category to another
- Automatic email notification when a link is added to directory
- Upon rejection of a link inclusion request, the partner will be notified by email with the reason for rejection

** Configurable Approval/Rejection Wait time

Configure module to automatically take action on link/banner exchange requests if you do not respond to your partner or if your partner does not respond to your requests with in a pre-configured number of days

** SEF URLs via existing modules such as pathauto

** Recommend a Website to Webmaster

Visitors and registered users can recommend websites to website administrator

** Comprehensive Partner Link Rating System

Visitors and registered users can rate partner links in the directory. This provides the website administrator with an indication of the popularity of the websites with their visitors. These ratings can also be displayed along-side the links in the directory

** Check Link Status of Partner link at Frontend

Once the partner has placed a exchange request, he/she can check the status of link exchange status anytime

** Send reminders to administrator about link inclusion request

No more problem of unable to find out how to contact the administrator if you waiting for too long for exchange. You can use this feature and contact the administrator instantly

** CAPTCHA Image Security for Forms

Forms are secured by CAPTCHA image security, which can turned on/off at backend. Maybe Spam module can interface here or use the Gotcha module?

** SNAP preview of directory links

** Comprehensive Directory Search

This feature enables the visitors to search the link directory for specific words or URLs or links

** Ability to sell directory Space

Administrators can now sell space on their directory for Featured Links and get the payment through Paypal. Once the payment is received, they can contact the user, get the link details and add it to the directory.

** Partner Hits Tracking

Ability to track the number of hits and display the hit count in frontend against each link in directory

** Tell a Friend about a Partner Link

Feature which enables users to tell/inform a friend about any link in the directory from frontend.

** Popular Links and Banners

Popular Link image is added against each link to indicate if the number of hits is beyond a certain count

** Display Votes secured by Partners in Frontend

Number of votes along with the rating will be displayed in mouseover in the frontend against each link

** Featured Links

Ability to display Featured (paid/unpaid) Links at one of the 3 different spots in the directory

** Partner Website Link Reviews

- Ability to write, edit, delete and approve partner website REVIEWS
- Registered users will be able to write reviews in frontend about partner websites.
- Reviews can be configured to be auto-approved or approved by administrator.
- Reviews can seen in the frontend by clicking on an image
- The option to display reviews on frontend can be switched on/off at backend
- The option to write reviews on frontend can be switched on/off at backend
- Reviews can be approved or deleted by the administrator at backend

** Link Management Dashboard

A centralized dashboard at the backend that presents the overall directory and links status along with the latest NEWS and Links to the webmaster

** Backend features such as:

- Ability to switch on/off the facility for users to initiate link exchange requests at frontend!
- Links to partners are text links, with configurable title, description and URL
- Ability to add, edit and delete links at backend
- Ability to add, edit and delete categories at backend
- Ability to move one or more links from one category to another at backend
- Option for webmaster to approve or reject the link inclusion requests
- Ability to approve one or more links at a time using backend
- Ability to change the status of the link manually, using backend
- Enhanced menu navigation at the backend
- Display Google Page Rank for the links at the backend
- Display Alexa Traffic Rank for the links at the backend