Google's "company philosophy" states "Google search works because it relies on the millions of individuals posting links on websites to help determine which other sites offer content of value." Over the last two years Google has rolled out a series of algorithm updates and public relations tactics that have lead the SEO industry to question this fundamental premise. Are links good or bad? What is the real difference between building and earning links? Has Google broken the Internet?
A Brief History of Linking
Before the Internet, writers would cite their sources in footnotes or a bibliography. The web allowed people to give a direct link to those sources for more information on a topic. Google started using links as an indicator that a site was a good one and moved that website to a place where more people would find it: Page one of the search results. Figuring out ways to create backlinks became a new industry. Some purposely manufactured links made for Google search results that weren't necessarily the best results. That's when everything went haywire.
Fear? Sometimes
Brett Bastello of Inseev Interactive received this message from a reporter who quoted him in an article: "Per our company guidelines, all the outsiders links are nofollow links." Bastello assumes this has to do with fear of a Google penalty and says, "unfortunately this thinking couldn't be further from the truth and the amount of misinformation circulating around this topic is astounding. Just as Wikipedia references outside websites, Google likes to see blogs and websites referencing other qualified and authoritative websites on similar topics. The reason the links on Wikipedia are nofollowed is because it is User Generated Content with a high possibility of abuse, however, as an editor of a website you have 100% of the content control, and thus, this eliminates virtually any possibility of abuse, therefore, these sites should be dofollowing the links."
Agreed. But, read Rand Fishkin's blog post about an unwarranted Google penalty. No wonder people are afraid!
Resources
http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/opinion/2411268/the-collateral-damage-of-google-s-link-policy
