Does anybody really know what time it is?

Does anybody really care?

[Liane]

Sorry about stealing the Chicago lead in ... it just seemed appropriate for the discussion to follow.

I am curious to know if anyone really keeps track of their "reported" links on Google, Yahoo or MSN anymore? Does anyone really care? Do "reported" link counts having any bearing on anything at all?

I thought it was interesting (though indicative of nothing in particular) that my site has 60 reported links on Google, 792 on MSN and 1,690 on Yahoo.

I checked a close competitor and they have 28 on Google, 2,137 on MSN and 433,000 on Yahoo! The MSN figure seemed pretty hinkey ... but the Yahoo figure blew me away! I mean ... are these figures outrageously silly or what?

I think my reported Yahoo links are pretty much in line with the actual facts. MSN and Google are out to lunch in reporting links, but I don't particularly care as I stopped paying attention to link counts the day I decided to provide the best and most informative web site in my industry.

What blows me away is the figure of my closest competitor's link count of 433,000 on Yahoo versus my paltry 1,690. Pretty pathetic comparison don'tcha think! Yet ... my site STILL ranks above them in most of the important searches.

So exactly what do these link reports really mean? And who cares?

I looked through my Yahoo links and with the exception of about 10% ... most are from relavent sites which are on topic.

I then looked through my competitors links (it took hours) and they are almost all ridiculously off topic! For the most part, they have nothing to do with what we are both selling.

I can only surmise that my competitor has been keeping some self professed SEO busy getting irrelevant links to their site which is doing them next to no good at all. They are likely paying handsomely for this person to spend hours and hours racking up links.

I just have to ask ... WHY? What the heck is the point? Does anyone really believe that 433,000 links from completely unrelated sites will do them any good at all?

If so, WHY?

[larryhatch]

I would guess that your competitor is trying to substitute quantify for quality.
One bandleader I worked for said it: "If you can't play good, play loud".

Sure oceans of links help, but not an awful lot if they are low ranking or irrelevant.
It doesn't sound like it worked in your competitor's case. -Larry