It is said that in the internet marketing world, content is king. While there is no doubt that strong copy and valuable information is what will ultimately determine whether your site will be a profit machine or a money pit.
But, in order to get that buyer ready to part ways with their hard earned cash they must find your site.
There are traditional methods that include text link advertising, banner ads, "sponsorships", and directory listings. While that is only the tip of the iceberg of the potential internet methods available, they are all meant to do one thing:
Send a reader to your site.
Now, the world's current number one search engine, Google, has a system in place that favors these links. To see this in action, go to google.com and enter the following word: miserable failure
For those not inclined to test it yourself, the number one search result is for the biography page of the current President of the United State, George W. Bush.
Obvioulsy, the White House has not engaged in a SEM campaign to target that phrase to lead to that page. But what it does clearly demonstrate is how Google works.
It's all about links.
Simply put, there are more links of the known Internet that have the word "miserable failure" as the clickable text that point to that page. Don't get the notion that SEO/SEM is as simple as that, but in a case where there is a phrase that no one wants to rank on, it's very easy to manipulate the rankings of Google.
Keeping that demonstration in mind, the goal of every webmaster should be to get text links that point to their site with whatever keyphrase they are actively pursuing.
While it will take more than just "out-linking" your online competition, it is a decided advantage to get your site as many links as possible - and take your money to the bank.
-To your online success!
Paul Bliss
www.SEOforGoogle.com 
