Linking

Along with keywords, linking is the heart and soul of online marketing.  The original Google algorithm made linking one of the great deciding factors in how high a site should be ranked in the results.  It's a great idea.  In theory.  The search engines believe that if a site is good enough, great enough, informative enough, it will just naturally...grow its own links.  Like the saying goes, Build it and they will come.

Have you ever thrown a party without inviting guests?  Did the guests telepathically know that a party was happening?  Of course not.  So, online marketers need to get the word out and drum up interest.  Black hat marketers believe that linking can be engineered out of thin air--and many do a pretty good job of it.  More legit Internet marketers resort to other, more painful (and slower) linking strategies.