As many of you know, I love to share helpful information I find when reading other blogs, marketing related journals and trade papers. A colleague recently shared a great article with me about Google's recent stance on paid links.

For those of you who haven't kept up with all the fanfare, Google has stated their position against paid links - virtually discrediting the paid link industry and indicating that they will penalize sites that purchase inbound links to some degree in search results listings. That said, this particular article caught my eye because it asks the right question which is instigated by the paid link debate, "Is Your Website Link Worthy?"

The article focuses on link worthiness because companies, who are purchasing in-bound links to their website, are often missing the big picture. These companies should focus on the reason(s) why purchasing links is the primary SEO option. Often times, sites have not focused on their own website and determined why other websites would want to link to them.

Here's a great exercise. Open your web browser and visit your URL. When you get to your website, write down 10 reasons why other sites would want to link to you. Chances are you'll struggle to write down ten. You'll probably have 3 or 4 at most. The point here is that you should consider creating compelling reasons for other sites to link to you.

Don't be afraid to ask yourself, "Is my site link worthy?" You'd be surprised at what types of enhancements may result. Here are some examples of creating valuable link generators:

You get the idea. Provide something of value and you'd be surprised at how many in-bound links you can create to your website!