The first SEs used keyword frequency. That was easily gamed and I remember people putting keywords into hidden text on the page (like making the background white and the text white at the bottom of the page - stuffed with the repeated keyword). That game didn't last long.
And then Google (and others BTW) came along and used inbound links to determine authority sites. They developed a Page rank to help weigh the value of those inbound links, among other things. That quickly became gamed. Site owners would use programs to turn one article into many and spit thousands of articles across the web with inbound links.
So it is logical that Google would try to figure out a "reverse" Page rank to discount all of these inbound "trash" links. Now sites may be penalized for having too many inbound links. LOL At least that is the way Panda looks to me.
I have personally done a couple things.
A year or two ago I quit accepting guest writers on our sites. Every day we still get requests, but it isn't worth it. If you accept a guest writer, you have no idea who else is linking to their site (ie the quality of sites linking to his site). I suspect that you could be pulled down if you link to some trash sites (now or in a future algo iteration). It isn't worth it.
The second thing was: We quit accepting advertisements, other than Google, AOL (advertising.com), Chitika, and a couple others.
There is more to SEO than inbound links, but what do you think will be the future direction? Obviously quality content is good, but what else - how do you get seen and have the opportunity to move up the ranks?
