Do you know anyone who lost his job because of google algorithm updates? I know. And I do have a guilty feeling in that. I was the one who came to an assumption that the traditional link building is not doing any good for any website anymore. So the guy who was working on reciprocal links lost his job. The company told him that they will get in touch with you once they have a vacancy for him. Typical corporate way of saying “you are fired!”

So what was it? Google and other search engines are no more giving any importance to the links to a website? What happened to the famous PageRank equation Larry Page and Sergy Brin explained in their research paper?

I do think that major search engines are playing down the importance of reciprocal links. But that doesn’t mean that links are no more important. Links can be useful for a website in a number of situations:

• Links embedded within the content. article marketing comes very handy in this situation.
• Links corresponding to the content they are embedded in.
• Links created by individuals and rated due to their relevance and value.
• Links consistent with the original website.
• Links that appear to be originally posted.
• Links posted on sites where the content is user generated.

All these points are concluding to the integration of the Web 2.0 tools into link building. So, if I have to do link building today, I might use the following steps. Remember, this is not a fool-proof strategy or anything. I myself may change it tomorrow morning.

Research & identify social sites that fit the criteria for valuable links

1. Check the site has been properly indexed in search engines.
2. Try to find out whether there are social media websites which deal with your particular industry sector.
3. See if other members in the network are active. If none of the users posted anything in the last two days, forget about that site!
4. The site should allow putting in our links. Even if it is a “nofollow” or redirected link. At the end of the day, what you need is the traffic!

Authentic, Active Participation

It is very important to reveal your human face if you want to promote anything on the world of web 2.0. Creating a detailed profile in the social media websites you are planning to use is very important in this case. And try to use almost all possible types of websites in your campaign. Maybe you have to fine-tune your methods of promotion in each website. But to gain that knowledge, what you have to do is to test it. I am planning to write about the promotion techniques in some major websites. But that’s not all. You may get your best results from some other websites. So, keep testing…

So, what is going to happen to my friend who lost the job? I think he should go back to the company and convince them that the link bulding is still on and we can use it even in the Web 2.0 era. And ask the CEO to give him the facebook password so that he can promote his company!