Linking Myths Debunked

You can either play games, or win the game...

We do reciprocal linking work all day, every day, for hundreds of websites. We are quite possibly the most experienced practitioners on the planet. We also read everything we can find that is written about this subject. Unfortunately, much of it is just plain wrong.

Where does this come from?

Since linking is now important to the search engines, the "search engine mythologists" have decided to get involved in an area that they previously ignored. They haunt the discussion boards and forums related to search engine optimization, and derive all manner of linking theories from the postings. In most cases, this is all related to some sort of page ranking analysis, in which they attempt to "win" the search engine game with a concocted strategy about the "right" sites to link to.

Frankly, they use fear in order to generate inquiries for work. The truth is...it doesn't work. Linking strategies that EXCLUDE a lot of relevant websites because of their traffic volume or page ranking is EXACTLY THE WRONG WAY to do this work. What's more, these strategies make the difficult task of earning links even more difficult and frustrating.

Misplaced priorities

These writers always get their priorities backwards. They propose ridiculously complicated strategies, while glossing over the considerable logistical challenges of linking. Strategically, linking should be quite simple. Earn as many links as possible from other relevant, legitimate web pages (note the use of the term "pages", not "sites" here). And do it as quickly as possible.

Instead, these people would have you chasing links from sites that MAY NEVER EVEN LINK TO YOU, just because those sites have high traffic or high page rankings. You end up wasting even more time, chasing ghosts!

The goal should be to find relevant pages that WILL link to you QUICKLY, and start building your base of link popularity as large as possible soon as possible, while avoiding linking "games" and link networks. Google's own webmaster guidelines state: "Have other relevant sites link to yours."

That's exactly what we do here!

Their inexperience shows

In most cases, the writers of these articles betray their inexperience at linking within their own writings, by advising their readers to use the most inefficient methods possible of running a link campaign. If they really knew what they were talking about, they'd know the difference. All while presenting all of this as a simple task that takes a "little bit of time" every night.

Bull...linking work is pure drudgery. To maintain your sanity, you want to spend the least amount of time possible, to get the most results. That means using methods and processes that are considerably more sophisticated than slogging through hundreds of sites, looking for link partners.

Again, if they actually did a lot of linking, they'd know the difference, and convey that to their readers.

Experience makes a difference

Again, we manage dozens of link campaigns. We see what works, every day. Forget about the schemes and goofy strategies. Relevant link popularity, in volume, is what works in this business, time and time again. Excluding relevant pages from consideration in order to "beat" the search engines actually thwarts this goal. What's more, it leaves you vulnerable to competitors who are not so inhibited.

We can build our client's link popularity quickly and properly. We know who WILL link back promptly. We get results that will keep competitors at bay.

Cost/benefit analysis

It costs the same to get 10 links from high ranked sites as it does to get 50 links from relevant but not so highly ranked sites. And the 50 links would include the 10 high ranking sites. With exclusionary strategies, you get less link popularity, for the same price. And the site with 50 links will beat your pants off in the indexing game, every time, and will most likely get indexed sooner.

Exclusionary linking makes absolutely no sense, no matter how you cut it. Quite simply - from our considerable, street level, day-to-day experience with linking...It does not work! With linking you can play games, or win the game. We advise you against taking advise from people who talk a lot about linking, but who don't really do much about it.