Links are still very important to SEO and interent marketing. The importance of links will become less important as the search engines evolve. Incoming one-way links, nonreciprocal links, are still very important to the Search Engines - their spiders find them easily and they then evaluate these links for the other criteria of “goodness”. If the link to your website is from a well-ranked page, then the algorithms give it a heavier weight.

Links are also important for internet marketing because they have a growing significance within the new Web 2.0 social networks. Even small blogs can obtain notable rankings and good search engine report placements if their links and traffic come from “good”, established websites.

An incoming one-way link ostensibly signifies an altruistic act in the webworld that recognizes and rewards a “good”, appreciated website. This is usually called the “natural way” of building links. It presupposes that a visitor to a website who is impressed by the website (for whatever reason) will give it a vote of confidence by placing a link to that wonderful website in as prominent a way as possible. This positive endorsement is heavily weighted by the search engines.

And it is probably true that the search engines ignore one way links from “bad” websites - which prevents a negative campaign to bring down a website by putting links to the website from porn, drug sales, gambling and extralegal business-sites.

The three largest problems with the “natural” link building approach is that: 1) it mistakes altruism as a criterion for “goodness” 2) it ignores the objectivity and conciseness of a website in favor of the link 3) it conveys “expert” status (one “good” criterion) based on volume of content and links.

1) Altruism is wonderful. But, even well meaning altruism has been the death of many people, corporations, and nations. Altruism feeds into a sense of duty and goodness - often of the immature, the uninformed, the uninterested, the subversive, the preoccupied. Is altruism bad? No, but it is overrated. I should not need the endorsement of a well meaning individual to prove the value of my website. A well meaning link should not pass as a solid judgment between “good” and “bad”.

2) Links of any kind do not prove: objectivity, conciseness, real and necessary differentiation between the strong and the weak, real solutions. Many links are worthless, banal, immature, or self-destructive. This preoccupation with links allows the search engines to ignore the truly “good” criteria in favor of link recommendations. The search engines will have to judge by objective knowledge in the future. The incentives to improve, to transcend, to be carefully objective and concise shouldn’t be ignored.

3) “Expert” status that is awarded based on volume of content chooses quantity over quality. It avoids again the criteria of objectivity and conciseness. What is the point of reading from hundreds of related articles that repeatedly use keywords but do not give the most objective or concise version of the word or phrase that was searched?

Internet marketing will suffer through the evolution of the search system that is based on links. During this evolution the best thing to remember is that it will change. Today’s cloud of dust will give way to another, new, improved cloud of dust.

At present “good” links will help your search placement . “Good” content will help get those “good” links. The search engines are becoming more objective than they used to be, which means that successful internet marketing will have to become more and more sophisticated in its content and links. When search services finally become effective in judging content for objectivity and conciseness, rather than preoccupation with links and redundant quantity, then web pages with objective and concise content will finally be rewarded.

Getting It Straight,
Arthur Browning