A Linking Program the Search Engines Love
by Andre Best

As the owner of the ArticlesandAuthors.com free article directory I'm finding it interesting reading some of the thousands of articles that are submitted for posting in my directory. That is, articles that relate to linking, link exchanges, reciprocal linking, and pretty much everything else link-related.

It's interesting reading about the minor shifts in the advice that is occurring out in the world relating to the effectiveness of linking. At least as far as most people's opinions are currently swaying, one way or another.

In this case, the latest 'word on the e-street' so to speak is that link exchanges are nowhere near as effective as they once were. Apparently, the major Search Engines are becoming pretty good at screening out empty, non-beneficial links (created just to get more PageRank) as they 'understand' that the vast majority of link exchanges of this type are merely done as an attempt to boost both link-exchanging websites' ranking and listing in the organic Search Engine listings.

Of course, like everything else on the Net, the exchanging of links has morphed from a genuine aspect of the original intent of the Internet, to now a means to potentially make a financial windfall for every webmaster around the globe. At least in theory.

But let's backtrack and briefly discuss this 'original intent' of the Internet...

Going way back to the mid 1990's when the current-day World Wide Web began it was, very simplistically, a network of computers in differing geographic locations being able to communicate with each other. And the people who owned the original early web-sites were literally linked together whenever a connection to the World Wide Web was sought.

And this 'community' was a friendly one akin to you and your neighbors relating in your own neighborhood. That is, you might not know all your neighbors intimately, or even at all. But you're all relative to each other geographically-speaking, at least. Some of your neighbors you have exchanged phone numbers with and some you haven't broached that kind of relationship.

But for those neighbors that you have this more intimate relationship with, you share information including phone numbers, names, and addresses, so that you may maintain those relationships if and when one of these neighbors in your neighborhood moves away to another location. Essentially, this is done so that the connection, the LINK, to that neighbor is maintained by both parties.

Esssentialy, it's all very friendly, honest, and serves a genuine need. You, and the neighbor moving away from the neighborhood want to maintain your connection so you ensure that each of you is aware of the other's contact information. And you thereafter maintain an ongoing two-way communication. Again, this is akin to a two-way link exchange.

Overall this is all very honest and results in a nice ongoing long-distance relationship between two 'neighbors'.

And this is how the World Wide Web was originally meant to perform because it was designed to link together websites by all its users. That is, the links between websites were meant to be genuine, needed, and a sharing of mutually beneficial INFORMATION, information that helped both parties and showed the ongoing symbiotic relationship between the two websites.

Now, getting back to today...

This original 'linking' design has now pretty much just become...

''Hi! I don't know you... I don't know what your website is about... I don't know your visitors... I don't even know if what you're doing is legal - but, hey, you have a website and I do too so let's pretend we've had a long-term, ongoing relationship and try to convince the world that we have a genuine relationship by each of us mentioning the other's website on our website and if we're lucky one of us will make money somehow by doing this.''

So what's the result of this type of 'relationship' as far as the Search Engines are concerned? Well, the Search Engines have tuned into this pretense big time, actually for some time now. But they're just now getting good at having their little spiderbots e-sniff these funky and fake relationships out.

In actuality, the Search Engines know that:

- today's link exchanges are done pretty much purely for monetary reasons.

- today's reciprocal linking, for the most part, is purely to convince visitors that the other website's link is a good endorsement and they should visit it too, when in fact this is virtually never the case.

- it is a rare website today that actually links to another website with no expectation of benefiting from that link listing or even getting a 'reciprocal' link from that website.

So where does all this leave us?

Well, I think that the small minority of us who intend on taking the Internet at its root design and working from there need to ensure that our website linking fulfills the original, genuine intent of the World Wide Web.

That is, we need to put the sharing of information and the establishing of genuine relationships first. And we need to put the making of money second to the first.

As long as we're all now making the Internet nothing but another potential monetization avenue for all our financial desires and dreams we're essentially bastardizing a potentially pleasant relationship with our 'neighbors'.

Think about how many tools, schemes, and programs have come along during the last several years. All designed to find a way to trick, con, and seduce you, me, and the Search Engines so as to make money for the creator of that stuff.

And these new deals are all created and structured to ignore the original, oldest, and still most successful model that the Search Engines are working very hard to cull out from all the dross, and subsequently recognize and reward through higher pagerank.

And what is this model the Search Engines avidly seek out? The genuine sharing of information between websites.

Think about it, wouldn't you like to be a part of a program that the Search Engines are diligently working to find participants who are genuinely working that program and doing everything they can to build their websites modelled after that program? You CAN be a part of this program. How?

Just follow the original intent of the World Wide Web. And the intent of today's Search Engines too.

Share information, but make it genuine.

Establish relationships for linking, but make them genuine.

Link to other websites on yours, but do it truly just to benefit YOUR VISITORS.

Sure, you probably won't get rich quickly with this methodology. But, wouldn't you agree that the Internet is here to stay? Don't you want to be too? Stick with the original intent of the world wide web as far as all your websites are concerned.

Give the Search Engines what they are openly showing you they want, and you will eventually get what you want. Including money.

Trust me on this. And wait and watch what happens.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.ArticlesandAuthors.com - THE Premier Site for Articles AND Authors

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