The latest poll shows that only 77% of all internet users are satisfied with the results they get when doing searches. One of the major complaints listed in the results is that users find the results confusing; and rightly so. Many of the major search portals provide 3 sets of results with every search: one generated by the engine that powers the site, another by "editors" and a third by popularity.

The popularity results are most often provided by Direct Hit, which uses a ranking system that rates a site according to the number of times users click though to a web site from the results pages. The problem is that most new sites are at a definite disadvantage when it comes to getting listed high in the results, because, if you understand that most searchers WILL click on the top search results, those lower down in the list really don't have mush of a chance to move up in the rankings.

So, the search portal's quest for "perfect" results have led them to using an algorithm that includes assigning a higher value to sites with many links going to them. If the sites linking are of specific interest and "popular" so much the better, because those sites generate an even higher rating.

So, creating the perfect pages may not be enough. Where does that leave new web sites? Well, there are free linking lists available. As I've mentioned, Search Engine World, has a great program, which costs nothing to join, but offers a multitude of advantages, including the most important, 600+/- sites linking to each other.

If you are a subscriber to a newsletter, or site that is focused on a particular area, you might want to request that the site offer a linking system for their subscribers.

Neither the list nor the linking system need not be obtrusive; in fact, it can be quite subdued for those "high profile" sites that feel that linking is rather "bush league". The idea is simply to allow other paths into a site; thereby generating traffic.

Do I believe that link popularity makes the site more valuable? No, but what it does, just like the popularity ranking, is give major advantages to established or simply bigger sites. The climate that created the web is changing though; so it behooves us to adapt quickly and master it.