Are the inward links to your website smart?

Some people say 'all publicity is good publicity'. I guess the same people would say all inward links to your web site are good links. I disagree with both views.

Inward links are one of the ways that Google use to determine your web site's ranking for a particular keyword. Inward links help Google evaluate:-

• the importance of your site - with more links from sites with high page ranks the better
• which keywords are relevant to your web site based on the anchor text used on the other site
• what your website is about 

So, finding other relevant high ranking sites that will link to your site is a good objective. I would be delighted if the www.bbc.co.uk reported on some of my articles and linked to my web site.

However, some people are so keen to get a higher Google ranking (than they deserve) they resort to unethical ways to achieve this. This is only likely to offer a short term improvement (if any). Clearly Google want to ensure that the cream rises to the top and I am sure Google have hundreds or thousands of smart people trying to prevent unethical methods distorting their search results. Once found out, there is a risk of your site being blacklisted by Google which would be no small issue. 

Today, I received an email which said 

'I have been reading over your web marketing site after finding you on a Google search and would like to suggest a resource that might be useful to your other visitors.' 

It came from a media agency promoting one of their clients that makes handmade silver jewellery. Of course, some of my web visitors might buy jewellery. They also might buy cars, pianos, stocks, clothing or rhino horns. However, given my site content includes marketing newsletters, a marketing ROI system, a Marketing Performance Index & marketing seminars it doesn't seem a natural fit to me unless it was part of a web marketing article because:-

• they had a great website or
• did outstanding web marketing or 
• provided some sort of terrific service to me or someone I knew

What would a visitor to a web marketing site make of a straight link to a jewellery site? To me, it would seem out of place.

What do you think?

Remember...web marketing is about solving customers' problems profitably.

Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.