Link Earning
What is “Link Earning”?
For the past several years, getting a website or page to rank well in Google’s search engine typically involved getting other sites to link to yours. Google used links as a way to measure popularity. “Link building” is what search engine optimizers and internet marketers called the process of acquiring those links. Unfortunately, many chose to try to take the easy route and “game the system” by getting hundreds of links from sites that really did not provide much, if any, value to web users. Over time, Google got better at identifying these links, devaluing them, and sometimes penalizing the sites involved with link schemes.
As a result, better marketers and SEO’s have returned to the original intent of links – as a legitimate endorsement. This type of link is not easy to get. You cannot simply buy hundreds of them, they must be earned based on the merits of the website or page, and the value it offers to people. Link earning is not just a feel-good rebranding of a less than ideal marketing practice. Link earning is what now drives successful content marketing and SEO and will continue to do so – until Google figures out how to run a search engine that doesn’t use links in its algorithm.
