One aspect of search engine optimization that is also affected in a roundabout way is link popularity development. After observing effects of strictly relevant link exchanges on many of our client's sites recently, we've noticed incredibly fast #1 rankings on Google. It seems Google may be looking out for links pages designed for sole purpose of raising link popularity and devalues relevance of site. After all, if a links page on a real estate site has 100 outgoing links to pharmacy sites, there has to be a lot of content on that page completely unrelated to real estate. Not until now has that been so detrimental to a site's overall relevance to search terms. It goes back to old rule of thumb: Make your visitors top priority. Create a resources page that actually contains useful links for your site users. If you need to do reciprocal linking then keep it relevant and work those sites in with other good resources.

Keeping up with online search world can be overwhelming for average small business owner or corporate marketing department. Constant Google changes, MSN coming on scene in a big way, and all hype around new Become.com shopping search function can make heads spin. But just keep things simple and follow main rules that have been around for years. Google, as well as other search engines, won't ever be able to ignore informative, well written content along with good quality votes from other web sites.