At Real Estate Blogsites, we've always emphasized good content and great technology

I thought this piece in Search Engine Watch on the value of links was very informative and important to pass along:

What’s a link worth? The answer often seems riddled with secrets that aren’t secret and lies that are. Don’t listen to the false promises of secrets. Don’t get taken in by the lies.

See this Matt Cutts interview [particularly part II] and note Cutts’ recognition of a common Realtor reciprocal- linking tactic. It seems Google is asking, "Is it valuable to the searching home buyer or seller if a Realtor shares links with several other Realtors in completely different areas of the country? And if not, why should the Realtor benefit?"

At Real Estate Blogsites, we’ve always emphasized consistent on- topic content and great technology. We’ve also been very careful to recognize linking strategies with a ‘heads up’ approach:

This is certainly not to say you shouldn’t recruit and provide relevant links. You should; however know that it’s not the simple exercise it once was and that you should be very concerned with the quality, as opposed to sheer quantity, of your links.

In all, consistent on- topic content will maximize indexing, search visibility, human interest and it should be priority number one. Good technology is also very important and can offer incremental advantages. Links, particularly inbound, should actually occur naturally and as a result of the good content. Links can certainly project search engine relevance, but recruiting or trading them requires knowledge and a healthy respect for the risk involved in having the wrong links.