Most people know nowadays that having links is the key to good rankings on the search engines, but what sort of links? Is it a case of the more links the better or do fewer high quality links make more of a difference?

The answer is that links should be all about relevance. Gone are the days where thousands of links from low quality directories made a difference. What is most important is links from HIGH QUALITY and RELEVANT websites. This is why having unique and up to date content on your website can really help. Unique and topical content will encourage relevant websites to link to you, taking much of the repetitive emailing and contact out of the equation.

Online PR and RSS feeds form part of this equation -encouraging other websites looking for information that will interest their readers to link to your articles. Top quality links come from news sources like the BBC or even university and school sites, which are well respected by the search engines.

If you are an online retailer stocking leading brands it is logical to consider asking your suppliers for links as their sites are normally (not always) of high quality, relevant to your business, and popular with customers.

Word on the street is that in the future Google will start to use how many people click on these links as part of their algorithm for ranking websites. The more clicks from other relevant sites the better the rankings. This is why it really makes sense to build linking relationships with those that you know will drive traffic to your website.

The key point to keep in mind to future proof your online marketing is that sites that bring you relevant traffic are going to be the best sites to get links from. Relevance will mean more than ever in Google’s future changes. In addition to using algorithmic means to figure out what your site is about, search engines may also begin to measure user interactions with your site.