Is "linking/backlinking" Essential?

is it essential for a website to survive?

[Eterion]

Hey all, as some of you know from my recent posts, I just now completed (partially) a website of mine...
I've been hearing a lot about getting your site linked by other quality sites to increase pagerank and the like, however, it seems the job to do that is a lot harder than it looks. In addition, im worried that if I do manage to get a larger site to link to me, they might take advantage of the fact that im not officially listed (except through AdWords and Overture ads) on the net and take my content before my site even hits a regular search engine...
Just curious, is linking/backlinking to other sites essential for a website to survive? Or with proper promotion and planning, can a website manage to thrive without any direct linking (other than the display of ads on the site).
Please respond if any of you have any opinions, ive been wondering about this. Thanks.

[crescenta]

I think it is a good idea and should be recommended. However, I have one site where I do very little linking to other sites. I link to affiliates (amazon, etc.) and to a few other sites, but not many. I don't have a "links" page. The site does well in search engine listings anyway, I guess because some sites link to me.

I honestly don't mean to be stingy about linking to other sites on the one site--it's just that I have trouble finding sites on this particular niche that I *want* to link to.

One thing that some sites do (and I have done this to some extent) is sign up for website awards. You apply for an excellence award, if you get the award you link to the award site, and they link to you. The award site usually isn't in a competing area so they are not interested in swiping your content--they just want links, like you do. This approach won't work with everyone, but for certain sites (particularly one-man operations or "hobby" sites), it's not a bad idea.

[4string]

If you want to rank well in the SERPs, you need the backlinks. You especially need backlinks with your keywords in the anchor text. Outbound links are not as essential as inbounds.

After getting one authority site to link to me (free) with perfect anchor text, my site became the guerilla for that search term. Then other people started copying the link from the authority site for their sites. Traffic skyrocketed. Traffic comes from the SEs. I don't get a lot of click through from the actual links.

I wouldn't worry about someone swiping your content. Copyright it now and worry later if it actually happens. I know the paranoid feeling though. Use copyscape.

[Eterion]

thank you two so much for your advice! Is there anyone else who would want to share their opinion?

[MatthewHSE]

The more incoming links our site gets, the more visitors we get who say they found us on a search engine. I say go for all the links you can get.

[treeline]

You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many incoming links. Some links bring direct traffic, some add pagerank which brings search engine traffic. A healthy dose of both leads to healthy traffic. You're right, getting the links can be a job, but it's the difference between speaking in the forest and in a crowded meeting room.

The alternatives for getting the traffic:

Pay for advertising

Get backlinks

Find media coverage for your site

Build something so useful people can't stay away ---> if they ever find it....

Get lucky and great sites just link to you.

For many sites, the easiest and most dependable option is seeking out backlinks. Praying for luck isn't much of a business plan.