Link popularity is a winning factor in many campaigns to achieve
a substantial boost in your rankings, however; with all good can
come over-inflated and out of control manipulation (BAD).
The search engines will not be defeated for long. Those who
think they can get away with something in the short term will
generally come unstuck in the long term. Google recently changed
their algorithm (end 2003) which has upset many website owners
who relied upon Google results to provide them business. To me,
that is ineffective marketing, which ever way you look at it.
Websites who dominated the rankings because of link popularity
suddenly became unstuck and are now, nowhere to be seen.
Websites with minimal popularity but great content and even
those with little content and medium popularity have begun to
dominate the rankings for their given terms. Many people blame
Google, blame SEO's and anyone else they can blame. These are
free rankings that your contending within, which are constantly
being manipulated to use every inch from the system structure.
Users are not going to tolerate this for long if they cannot
find quality content and products when they search. With this
sudden upset and some minor tweaking by Google, the results will
eventually steady and those who once dominated will still not be
seen.
Many people, especially SEO's and Link Marketeers, get carried
away with the websites that their link is going to be displayed
upon. Yes, a website with wrong or illegal content and websites
that blatantly abuse search engines editorial policies, a
definite no no, but everything else is OK.
Another thing that I have found is people getting too wrapped up
in what Google wants! It is well documented that Google is
currently the major search engine on the Internet. Google is
also the major search engine that keeps changing their rules
because so many attempt to manipulate them. Remember this, Yahoo
was the leader of the pack in 2001. Who next?
What about the other MAJOR Search Engines that deliver the other
50% or so of traffic? This leads people to become to choosy with
who they will and won't link too. How about this! Link to whom
ever you please within the above standards, and advertise your
website as much as possible.
Whether your website is on a page with no PR or on a page with a
PR10, pages change, link importance changes and every search
engine evaluates different aspects to rank websites within their
engine. Maintaining a high ranking is like changing your
underwear; a daily requirement!
About the author:
Anthony Parsons has been performing search engine optimization
since 1998. In late 2003 I decided to fly solo and opened my own
SEO business to service the global community. With my wife being
an acknowledged copywriter, anthonyparsons.com as a business
will continue stepping forward breaking the boundaries of
conventional SEO techniques. Making a winning husband and wife
team, we make SEO affordable for all budgets.
http://search-engine-optimisation.anthonyparsons.com
