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Hi Dave,
I think your opinion is justified.
However, I feel that link popularity is here to stay. And, I would never recommend someone rely solely on Google for traffic or even on search engines in general.
I recommend that search rankings be a side-benefit of a well planned linking campaign. The reason is that not everyone is manipulating the search engines. For instance, I own a site (other than LinkSmile) which receives over 60,000 uniques per month from search engines (not just google) and this is because its link popularity is so high and so relevant.
We are not manipulating the search engines because all the links are natural result of paid advertising on quality sites from which we receive quite a bit more traffic than we get from search engines.
However, in many cases, I agree 100% with you that the search engines will eventually crush those trying to manipulate rankings. In fact, I welcome it. It will bring more quality sites to the surface.
There are several markets where companies advertise online and by the sheer nature of advertising, their link popularity increases. In these cases, it is imperative to have a good advertising plan and linking campaign running.
One of the uniqueness of how I approach the business is that I do not push pagerank or link popularity as a primary factor. Those are secondary. We have been successful in our online advertising by finding sites with good traffic whose link to us will send us quality, relevant traffic AND help boost link popularity as a side benefit.
Best Regards,
Wesley
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