I'd be curious to know how many SEOs have had clients lose their rankings with Google due to linking optimization strategies.

I agree that there needs to be content and links to create a successful website. I just don't believe in this current idea of links for the sake of ranking. I believe Google is developing filters just for that kind of strategy and that SEOs pushing that technique will endanger their client's websites.

I also feel that there is a common misunderstanding that links=traffic=rankings. Links do not equal traffic unless the links are from heavily trafficked websites. That is the key component! Traffic! Dell ranks high not because of any SEO techniques. They rank high because they spend millions on outside advertising that creates traffic for their website!..and the search engines track this and rank them accordingly.

The above writer stated that he uses directories for linking. That's a perfect example of finding a well trafficked website and establishing a linking strategy with them. I am still adamant that 1 link from a top tier website is all that you require for first page ranking in all of the search engines. You also get all sorts of other neat things like daily indexing and credibility with potential buyers.

Create the *content* that the top tier website would be interested in, and then watch the magic when they link back to you.

Forget about the "links for links sake" garbage. It's dangerous, time consuming, and develops very little real traffic or sales in the long run.