Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

A day for looking back
Not as productive of a day today, but a day for getting one big project (almost) out of the way. I converted MasterVisions' link directory over to the automated tool, LinkManager, that Mark will now be using. The pages aren't as controllable and, therefore, not as visually appealing as the old pages, but the ease of organizing link partners and updating pages should be worth it.

Now that it's up, adding new link partners will be a one-step process instead of entering them into a database, and then copying that info into DreamWeaver to update the web pages.

But spending a day with all those links brings back a lot of memories and a lot of thoughts about the directions link exchanging has gone in the past three years I've worked with them.

I came across our link to the first site I exchanged links with. Wow. How far we've come from that first link to now when we have nearly three hundred link partners.

And I came across sites that, when I first started out, were link popularity powerhouses that I requested link exchanges with and felt I had really accomplished something special when they linked back.

Thinking back on how thrilled I was with those "conquests," I felt kind of sad to see how much my feelings about exchanging links has changed. Link exchanging has become the part of web promotion that I like least, and that's probably an understatement.

Yeah, I probably take it too personally when I get a request from someone who seems manipulative or conniving in their dealings and I probably am a little too quick to grow suspicious. But I'm just so tired of the game it's turned into.

Most webmasters are honest in exchanging links. But the bad apples have really soured me on the whole thing. The ones who build a huge link exchange directory on one theme and wipe it out and start a brand new one on another theme, hoping that their link partners from the first theme will never check back to discover that their link has been removed.

I get tired of dealing with the cry-babies who write back in righteous indignation when I decline a link exchange request, demanding that I reconsider and add a wire welding equipment category to my home decor directory because "wire welding and home decor are so relevant to each other." Huh?

I looked back on the not-so-relevant categories that I did add in the early days when I was hungry to add as many links as I could, and found myself wishing I had kept the directory more focused back then. But then again, the search engine probably would not consider the site as a whole as authoritative as they do now is by the search engines if I had turned those links down.

And I wonder whether I've become a hypocrite for playing the link manipulation game even as I rail against it, or if I've just become a self-righteous stick-in-the-mud for decrying a manipulation that is so interwoven into the fabric of search engine optimization that nothing but a severe search engine algorithm change is going to have any effect on the way things are.

I guess I feel like my "white hat" is tainted a bit by the game. I've always held the philosophy that you create sites that are exactly what the search engines would consider good sites—relevant content, no tricks—and you'll hold steady rankings. And that's proven true. MasterVisions' rankings have grown and stayed up there even during some of the severe algorithm changes of the past few years that have sent the "black hat seo's" scrambling.

But the one area where I've seen my philosopy in conflict with my actions is in exchanging links and it bugs me. It's hard to turn down a good quality link exchange with an off-topic site. And it's hard for me to justify to myself accepting a link exchange with an off-topic site that offers a really great link. Yet the link exchange world forces that choice on us every day.

At any rate, I have mixed feelings. Updating the link directory is one of those routine things that I will turn over to Mark to do with as he wishes. Mostly, I'll be glad to see it out of my life (at least until I need to set another client up with a link exchange program).

But it's nice to look back on this directory and see how far I've brought it. Now, three years later, MasterVisions is in the same league with some of the link popularity powerhouses I looked up to in the beginning. It will be nice to leave it in Mark's hands, but I'm proud of how far it's come. And it's certainly been a long, strange journey to get where it is today.
Best wishes,
Jeff