I read with interest the post from the Search Quality Team at Google in Dublin on 
link baiting and building popularity.
Spannerworks have been noting the positive ranking changes, driven by a link exchange network at the moment, with some interest. Not something we do, as they tend to only have a short term effect and it is a little “grey”.
There still seems to be jittery people out there, so I thought short synopsis of Google’s recent link building post and past pronouncements might help calm nerves:
Earned links - Google tries to determine which links are ”earned” links or what SEOs more commonly refer to as trusted. Nothing new here – Google has tried for some time to reward natural “earned” links with more importance.
Non-Earned links - what happens to non-earned links (whatever Google decides in its wisdom for these to be) isn’t clearly defined. These could be links from a link ring, bought links, and Google seem to say these don’t impress them much. The post itself talks about “link-weighting” and hints at this. They don’t count for much, but also don’t downgrade your site either.
Buying and selling - Google considers paid links to be non-earned and will disregard these links if they can spot them.
Consistent with past Google pronouncements, the post states that sites known to be selling links might find their ability to “share the link Love” blocked.
Exchanged links = BAD - I’d ignore this little snippet - the definition of an exchanged link is so poorly defined, you’d be wasting your time working in this area.
Have good content / be a good citizen - of course! It naturally attracts good links.
Link baiting is fine - no problem in whipping out the old fishing tackle in case you were concerned.
Hope this helps. If you want more information re link and commuinity strategies. You know where we are.
