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Not at all. Links pointing to your site is still the number 1 Google signal that determines how popular/authoritative your content is, which in turn dictates your ranking position.

What has changed is the way back linking is done.

The old days of having thousands of spammy backlinks pointing to your site are over, or at least according to Google.

So it's down to quality versus quantity.

eg, in theory, 1 link from the BBC and 1 link from the Daily Fail would give you more authoritative and back link kudos than a 1000 spammy links.

Likewise the days of reciprocal links, ie you link to me and I link to you are over. It's perfectly ok to have some reciprocal links, and Google would expect any genuine linking profile to have some, but it's no longer a strategy to build links. So if most of your links are reciprocal, then it will work against you.

Google wants us to live in a Utopian web where people genuinely link to your content because they feel it was useful, quality or needs to be seen by others. Every time someone does this, it sends a message to Google that your web stuff is tip top, and you get a push in the right direction. They claim we are there now, but plenty of other people claim otherwise and seem to be still successfully gaming the search results with spammy links 

But it's a dangerous strategy and things have changed significantly since the Penguin Algorithm.  

If Google suddenly see a barrage of links pointing to your website from spammy locations, or dubious or same keyword driven anchor text, then it will work against you and you will get beaten with a stick, or in Google speak, beaten with a Penguin 

Interesting, I think few people would disagree travel security is an important issue in the current world we live in.

But who would be the target market, consumers/tourists or just the travel companies or both?

FCO advice has to be the first port of call because it is official, but concede it was always be very high level and general, like don't travel!

But how would you be able to offer more detailed and specific information that the FCO for more than a handful of destinations? Or are you talking about skills and tips which are generic for all destinations, like don't wave around your Jimmy Choo handbag in a rough area 

I think you might be onto something that tour operators would be worried about getting sued for giving bad or wrong advice. It's a lot easier to delegate to the FCO.

Maybe it could be something that is bolted onto Trip Advisor or Expedia, where you get given a security assessment after choosing your destination and accommodation. You and your growing army of consultants get paid a fee for every assessment. 

Or maybe a Security Review site for the world? Dumb it right down for the greater masses.

Syria 1 star

Egypt 1 star

Morocco 2 stars

England 5 stars etc

Then a more information tab on each country giving the latest information. Build it up, sell live data feeds to the travel companies and later the FCO  Fancy a web partner 

Elucidate - now that has to be a candidate for an oxymoron  I had to google it see what it meant 

Clinton, you've certainly livened up Rebecca's thread. Any chance you could visit a few more 

I'm here

I think this is a classic case of reading too much into something. I don't think Clinton is having a pop at you personally, he was offering an opinion from his perspective. As he says himself, English isn't his first language, so it's pretty impressive to be grammatically correct in a second language! 

Forum posts are by their very nature much less informal, a chance to show genuine personality, humour and banter. But people do judge, from forums to official press releases so it's finding that balance of how you are seen and perceived.

I've been accused in the past of being too cheeky chappy, which can give credibility problems when sat in front of an important client or tendering for a contract. I suspect the same can be said for most types of business, from web designers, mechanics or even dog walkers!

But I think you naturally find your right style, and a human more personal approach I think works better for smaller businesses. But this can be scuppered by bad writing or very poor grammar which conveys an impression of sloppiness or half a job bob. Look at the multitude of SEO forum posters, you read 1 line and form an instant opinion of them, and their business. Normally its the delete button.

Mind you there are always exceptions. I know a CEO (hate that term) of a really successful company who can't spell for toffee and even apologises in his email footer, which I find hilarious!

There is plenty of rubbish written about SEO, with lots of people regurgitating half truths or analysis from years gone by.

Then there are people who know what they are talking about and are respected in the industry. One of those people is Brian Dean who runs a company called Backlinko.

He has just done a report releasing the results of his study after analysing 1 million search results.

The key findings, (some obvious, some may surprise you) are here:

Backlinks - still the number one factor in determining search ranking, so no changes or surprises.

Site Authority - correlates to higher ranking. ie having good quality web sites linking to you. 

Focused content - ranks better, ie about a single topic rather than rambling.

Longer content - ranks higher, ie well crafted and quality content rather than a short post. 

HTTPS - Sites using HTTPS do better than equal sites using HTTP. Google said HTTPS sites would get a small bonus, it looks like this has increased and become more important.

Schema markup - doesn't help, at least in getting you up the search rankings. I still think schema mark up helps your content get found and helps with local search queries.

Images - An image in content raises ranking. This has been suggested for a while, so now confirmed. Although no obvious bonus for multiple images.

Title Tags - Small correlation with title tag keyword optimization and ranking. So the old favourite of the title tag is slowly losing it's power.

Site Speed - Speed is now a huge ranking signal. This has been very important for some time. If your site is running on cheap slow hosting, you will suffer.

Anchor Text - Exact match anchor text has a strong influence. Which is surprising as Google seemed to be going after exact match domains, eg builderswarwick.com 

Bounce Rate - Low bounce rate  improves ranking. This is a tough one to fix, especially for directory sites like ours. Have a look at your bounce rates and see if you can do anything about it.

You can read the full report (and download it) from backlinko.com which will be a great tool for analysing your SEO strategy. 

Anything you don't understand, comments or have any questions, fire away

Obviously there is no mistaking your business experience, so at risk of you beating me with a large stick, I'm afraid I disagree when it comes to things like forum posts.

If you are dealing with a clients content, writing a blog post, press release or most general content, then I'm with you. Quality is key, relevant style guides adhered to, with editorial approval and then professionally proof read.

But for some channels such as a forum, elements of social media, and particularly for small and micro businesses, then personality out weighs sterile corporate style content. Human input that is deemed to be approachable, is more likely to generate engagement.

I think we can forgive minor indiscretions when it comes to grammar on forum posts, as long as a post is topical, and there is a point to it. That said, completely agree when a business turns out low grade churn or continual self promo across multiple forum and social media sites, and that will definitely have an impact on the public perception.

Facebook everytime. Have dabbled with Linkedin which get views and some traffic, but little converts.

Where as Facebook generates consistent sign ups.

Some interesting comments on Facebook

Originally Posted by Barney

“So are you saying that all those energy saving tips I gave were a waste of time? Who'd have thought ”

Yup trying the slow and understated irony approach 

The good news is Rebecca our proof reader extraordinaire is off having a baby, so there is no one to pick up on my bad grammar and smelling