The Power of a Link by Bryan Braun

I loved this little thought on the power of an <a> link. People are literally employed to write emails asking domain owners for an <a> link to their site in exchange for $$$.

A link, on the open internet, is a vote. It’s your way of saying, “this is great, and more people should know about it.” We talk about how much power the search engines have, but if you think about it, the search engines listen to us. They see what we link to, what we click, and how long we stay. At the end of the day, we are the curators of what gets surfaced on the internet.

This is, at least unconsciously, part of the reason why I indexed my blog’s links: it’s a reminder of the votes I’ve cast on the internet.

I continue to occasionally get emails from marketers asking me to link to their stuff. And while it’s annoying to receive spam, it’s also a reminder of the power I wield, just by having an independent website where I can link to whatever I want.

The power of links! Independent websites: seize the means of search rankings!