Google Defines Good Linking & Bad Linking

In a must-read for all users of social networking including Digital Journal, Google has outlined characteristics of good and bad linking. Since Google's search algorithm is paramount in ranking websites, this advice will help us use proper rules for web.

Google says, "Our general advice is: Always focus on the users and not on search engines when developing your optimization strategy. Ask yourself what creates value for your users. Investing in the quality of your content and thereby earning natural backlinks benefits both the users and drives more qualified traffic to your site." This sounds common sense but most users or bloggers tend to inundate their content with keywords that are hot in hope that they will attract more users. This creates more clutter and drives down the overall value of the user-generated content.