Link building remains one of the most well known and effective ways of
driving traffic to your website. But as is the case with almost
everything in the world, people have prompted the discussions of the
doomsday for link building.
The webspace is clouded with rumors of the curtain falling down on the
link building exercise that almost every Search engine optimization
(SEO) in the world undertakes. SEOs spend countless hours trying to
examine and re-examine Google analytics data and figures to find out a
conclusive linking targets for their website. Getting the link-juice is
the main aim of the SEO, but what if Google shuts down the link-building
factory altogether? Scary, isn’t it?
Rumors sometimes can be as dangerous as a blind guy running amuck with a
grenade in hands as those believing in all these predictions might
start trying their hands at other SEO techniques and end up ignoring
what matters the most. Unless and until it is completely specified by
Google (that never happens, does it), one wouldn’t want to tread on
those lines.
If a recent patent is anything to go by then all your hard work might
just have been done to benefit Google itself. Google recently received a
patent for an ‘Enhanced Document Browser with Auto-generated Linkage’.
Does the term automatically generated ring any alarm bells for you?
For What this means is that the links would be individually tailored to
the reader based on their browsing history, making your link building
exercise a completely redundant exercise. This could only mean delight
for the users but complete agony for the whole industry.
The patent, which is an update to a 2004 filing, was granted in
February. The weak hearted might just sit back before beginning to read
the details of this patent as they’re in for a mean shock. Optimists
would be of the opinion that this patent would only be targeted at
Google’s own pages or those who choose to opt for it. Whatever we may
know of Search engine optimization (SEO) till now might just be thrown
down the drain and we would have to start right from the beginning,
strategizing in those long working hours, our eyes stuck on the laptop
screens. This would also raise a huge and complicated web property
rights argument, and that surely isn’t going down well with anyone at
all.
What we can do is just safely assume that this is just one of the things
that Google has done for its own satisfaction and not something that
would have wider implications for every one of us out there. Given that
each one of us would rather be the ostrich that prefers to stick its
head in the ground in case of an oncoming danger, we just cannot rule
out the possibility of it happening.
The recycle bin might just be the only place where all your intensely researched keywords land up in. Until then, Pray!
The End of Link Building?
