“Backlinks. Backlinks. Backlinks, get them by hook or by crook, or else your home based internet marketing strategy is flawed and deserves nothing more than a week-old donut and decaf..”

That quote above is one of the most popular, on-going “Mantras” in Home Based Internet Marketing today..

This is the mantra in home based internet marketing strategies today for the crowd of marketers who’ve gone the free route to establishing their online presence. Though backlinks are a crucial element in any SEO strategy, with this mantra has followed considerable debate on what “types” of backlinks actually work well in your overall home based internet marketing strategy.

9 out of 10 times you will come across people telling you to stick with “do-follow” and ignore “no-follow” links.

Believe it or not, this is one of the most unbelievable misconceptions to hit the home based internet marketing scene since the inception of this very industry.

And here’s why.

Google and other search engines treat the web as a “graph”, sites being represented by “nodes” and links (inbound and outbound) being represented by “edges”. The more connections a site makes with other sources of information, the heavier is the weight of it’s inbound and outbound “edges”. This forms one of the very foundations of Graph Centrality Theory in mathematics and is the premise of highest importance in any search engine’s algorithms. Ofcourse, with this come other factors such as traffic going to and from these sites, the PageRank of other sites linking to a particular site etc, the list goes on, but the bottom-line to understand is:

Having a “Smart” Backlinking Strategy is Crucial to Success in Home Based Internet Marketing!

“A link is just that.. A LINK” or another edge between two sites or nodes on this “graph” I speak of, giving it connectivity with the rest of the graph.

The more “traversable” this graph is for Search Engines like Google, the easier it becomes for them to display content from as many locations as possible, to both broaden and expand their viewers’ experience, giving people more information without people having to dig intensely into the web themselves.

And now..

The Biggest Misconception in SEO that can affect your Home Based Internet Marketing Strategy quite adversely:

Before you read on, remember:

A LINK is JUST a LINK!

The misconception that forms part of most home based internet marketing strategies is that if your site is being pointed to by links that are “no-follow”, the links are of no value to you and you’re better off having none if it’s “no-follows” that you’re going after.

That is absolutely, positively, 200% WRONG! 🙂

These follow attributes do NOT affect the linkages of a site to the rest of the Internet graph, they may only affect (debatably) how well PageRank itself is passed down to sites through these links. That’s it. Nothing more.

This misconception has lead to people, particularly article marketers bombarding article directories with content on a daily basis. Why? Because that link in the “resource box” is apparently “do-follow” in most top article directories and will give them amazing levels of PageRank and “Link Juice”.

Well, here’s news for you:

Any articles you submit to an article directory always start with a PageRank of 0 (Zero, nada). So posting your article to a PR6 directory doesn’t mean you’re getting PR6 link juice floating back to your site through the “do-follow” link in your article’s resource box. Of course, Article Directory owners don’t want to admit this, people wouldn’t post content on their sites otherwise, and they wouldn’t make as much money from Adsense as they do then would they 😉

So what should one think when crafting a backlinking strategy?

Follow the Golden Principle: “All Links Are Made Equal”

Having a well-nested site on the web, with a good proportion of both inbound and outbound links from it, is the key to getting more traffic and better organic rankings. PageRank comes in towards the end of any algorithm’s factors, it is a factor that determines to an extent the value of the ranking, but does not affect it so much that your site has no chance of standing out if it doesn’t have good PageRank.

For example, I own an Article Directory (ArticleZones.com) that is current at PageRank 3, BUT it has over 250 Sites linking back to it, and hundreds linking out of it to other sites. This site gets hundreds of thousands of pageviews every month, all from organic traffic directly from search engines. Infact, it gets more traffic than many sites with MUCH higher PageRanks of 4, 6 and even 7!. The inbound links to this site are roughly 40% “do-follow”, the rest are “no-follow”.

That just goes to show you how powerful just “links” are to the presence of your website online.

The mantra of “do-follow” and “no-follow” is old and outdated. Search Engines are looking to build that “graph” I spoke about earlier, and the denser and easier to traverse this graph is, the better the Search Engine’s ability to serve results to end-users, and easier it is for your site to get noticed in organic rankings.

So ditch the mantra.

Build your links from High PageRank sites if you must, but don’t really worry about the “no-follow” and “do-follow” business too much. It does not affect rankings to even a fraction of the extent that is hyped up all the time 🙂

Intelligent SEO therefore, involves all kinds of links, and as long as you have links, your home based internet marketing strategy will always be sound.

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About The Author:

Ali K. is an Affiliate Marketer, Product Creation & Launch Consultant, Copywriter, and one of the most Highly Recognized Programmers in the Home Based Internet Marketing world, the Lead Technologist behind the Blockbuster Launch of The Internet Time Machine, and Search Engine NowRelevant.com, and mentioned in several International News Publications such as Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, NY Times, LA Times, and Reuters, to name a few, for his work.

Ali K. also spearheads The SEPCON Project, a 100% Free Email Advisory with a mission to educate anyone and everyone interested in home based internet marketing in the art of Explosive Internet Marketing for Profit and Success. The SEPCON Project provides Cutting-Edge Software, Courses, Videos, Audios, PLR Re-Brandable Products, eBooks and tons more. Sign up for FREE (no gimmicks) at The SEPCON Project