Pixelrage.net

As an internet marketer, how tortured are you to start off each day wasting more hours out of your life to get more backlinks? I think that this practice has become so common and so routine, that most don’t even sit back and look at how ridiculously pointless and STUPID this practice is.

With all of this talk about how intelligent search engines are, the #1 most important factor in SEO is getting quality keyword-loaded backlinks. That’s how it was in 2003. That’s STILL how it is. Like any “cause and effect” scenario, it results in abuse. In my opinion, spending hours each day “building links” is abusing the system because it’s you building links for YOUR site – it’s not a case where 15 random people across the world have done it for you because you made something of value to them. To me, this is no different than a used car salesman turning back a car’s odometer to make it more attractive to a potential buyer.

Visit any internet marketing forum and there’s a section about linkbuilding, and everyone is asking how they can build more links to their site. What you have here is a mania that was created by the search engines themselves: more relevant links = we rank you higher. Why bother complaining about spam? It’s nothing but a product of human nature. When a system is in place that rewards backlinks, people adapt and think of malicious ways to do it; hence, blog comment spam bots, forum spam bots, spamming articles, using Angela’s method, paid directory submissions, hacking, and just about anything else that gets a link ANYwhere, regardless of where it is.

What concerns you the most as an internet marketer internet user? Quality of results? Helpful content? If so, then why does that jerk who speaks English at a 5th grade level deserve to show up on Google page 1, because he has amassed 1,500 backlinks to a made-for-Adsense site with spun content? It’s because there’s a system in place that rewarded him for doing so. So much for “smart” search engines.

Call me crazy, but I would seem to think that the whole “good, helpful content” part was the most important factor in being a webmaster…you know, writing stuff yourself that makes sense, is helpful and serves a purpose? Unfortunately, you can write the best content on Earth and it will get dusted under the rug unless you build constant backlinks to it. Boy, it must really suck if you’re an awesome writer but know nothing about SEO. There’s another “glass ceiling” scenario for you.

What happens if search engines grow up someday and reduce the validity of backlinks down to nothingness? All of these hours we’ve taken out of our lives will be in vain. What a waste that was. Whatever new method emerges will be whatever else internet marketers will bow down to, exploit or abuse. I really don’t see this ever stopping unless search engines rank sites based on what really matters: visitor retention statistics, click through rate, bounce rate and other on-site behavior that shows a site has tangible quality.

I don’t mean to be hypocritical. I spend every morning getting backlinks for my sites. I’m guilty of doing it all: article writing, bookmarking, blog commenting, profile links and all the rest. It just pisses me off because it’s a waste of my time and talent that could be spent doing something that’s actually productive and worthwhile, like designing a new website template or writing content.

Now, excuse me while I go bookmark this blog post on Delicious :)