What originally made Google great was founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin's realization that the web's "vast link structure" makes it possible to calculate an "individual page's value" largely by interpreting a link from one page or site to another as a "vote".

Though many other factors entered into its rankings, Google shot into prominence largely by relying more on these virtual election returns than its competitors did. Page and Brin apparently believed that link totals were, in part, a more accurate determinant of a page's worth than whatever metrics Yahoo! and the other search engines were then using, and the vast community of World Wide Web users rather obviously agreed with them.

Entering Google's second decade as the world's dominant search engine, it's reasonable to ask if its views on the value of links has changed, or if it still considers them crucial factors in determining a site's ranking and return position.

"Although Google crawls billions of pages, it's inevitable that some sites will be missed. When our spiders miss a site, it's frequently for one of the following reasons: The site isn't well connected through multiple links to other sites on the web ..."

True, this quote doesn't exactly relate to rank or return position, but it's kind of obvious that a page's rank and return position will be zilch if it isn't included in the Google index ... which, Google says, can happen if it has no links.

Note also that Google specifically says "connected through multiple links to other sites" ... which directly contradicts many Google outsiders' bogus claims that only links from other sites are important.

Going beyond mere indexing and into rank-and-return position, the following two statements prove that Google's official position remains consistent with its founders' original vision.

1. PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B.

2. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating.

Note particularly the reference to "quantity, quality, and relevance of links." Only an advanced editor-based link-management program such as LinksManager, which is based on patented technology unavailable to any other linking-solution provider, gives you the power to ensure that your links are structured to maximize these important elements.

Finally, much recent discussion about linking has centered on a Google guideline against building "partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking; disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites."

This particular guideline goes on to caution against "links intended to manipulate PageRank, links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web, excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging ('Link to me and I'll link to you.'), buying or selling links that pass PageRank."

In other words, Google quite reasonably reserves the right to penalize sites for using what we at LinksManager and virtually all legitimate web developers call bad links.

Good links, links Google declares as "useful for the indexing and ranking of your site" are defined as "natural links" that "develop as part of the dynamic nature of the web when other sites find your content valuable and think it would be helpful for their visitors."

Launched virtually simultaneously with Google in Q3 1998, LinksManager is cyberspace's oldest, most robust and user-friendly natural-linking facilitator. Today, as always, LinksManager remains in total compliance with all Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask and W3C white-hat linking guidelines.

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