What IS interesting is that this ties together not only viral marketing and the concepts in the “Tipping Point”, but also the web, and of particular interest search engine optimisation, and link-building or social media optimisation. There has been a lot of talk about semantic hubs on the web, and network theory helps to make this all clearer. It also ties in with semantic web structuring or “silos”.

Semantic relationships are mapped in the WordNet database, which is presented visually in the Visual Thesarus and this experiment at Sydney University. While we are exploring Semantics in search engines, here is a good summary of how Google is currently using Semantic suggestion

The short answer is that they are VERY important.

Experts in the SEO industry put the value of combined links and domain history at about 50% of your capacity to rank.

The long answer is that they are very important but have to be done right. Mass linking will get you penalized. And it’s not just the quality of the sites that link to you, but also your pattern of link growth (link history) and whether the sites that link to you are about the same topics as the particular keywords.

What are the important factors?

• How long have the links been in place.
• Quality of domains and pages sending the links.
• Topicality of the pages that link to you (and vice versa).
• Anchor text of links.
• PageRank and other weighting.
• Registration history.
• Domain age.

If you’d like more advice on how to create a lasting link-building strategy please contact Richard Quinn.