The internet is full of posts telling you what the value of links should be (I am not going to link to any of them) and how you can get links and so on and so forth. Perhaps I am grumpy today, but I almost yelled about loudly as I read yet another one of those posts. When people start talking about link porfolios and long-term linkbuilding, something is wrong with the world.

I run ads on my blog, and as a marketer I am always thinking about ways to keep people engaged with a website and how to make the site more amenable to be found in search results. There are many SEO gurus out there, whose advice has been invaluable in trying to figure out the best way to design a site and how to try and increase traffic. However, over time, traffic has become less important to me than the time people spend on my sites, how many pages they read and which ones. The central challenge remains; is the content compelling enough that people stay? I could buy all the links in the world, get a million people to my site and then have them leave in 5 seconds or less. On the other hand, I could have a 100 people a day stay for 5 minutes each. Which one would you prefer? The answer, to me at least, is a no brainer. It’s about engagement, not traffic.

Unfortunately, for some people, the emphasis on getting links and losing focus on quality content is reaching unparalleled heights. I am not quite sure who gets the lion share of the “blame”. Whether I like it or not, as long as no one is breaking any rules, they are free to do what they want. But then when Google starts downgrading sites that seem to buy links, the same people should not get all aggravated.

Sometimes (usually for about 15 seconds a week), I miss the good old days of the internet and search, when we were all trying to find some piece of information and not much else.

There, I am glad I got that off my chest.

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