Link building has kept search engine optimizers on their toes for some time now, and recent developments in they way Google calculates the relevance of links has made link building a complicated process. To understand how relevant link building works, it is important to understand why Google choose to implement the concept of relevant links.

When Google introduced the concept of PageRank, any website (with resources) could buy incoming links from websites that had high PageRank; this lead to an increase in proxy websites and single page sites. Such sites did nothing more than increase their PageRank, and sell outgoing links from their website. In addition, webmasters could easily purchase banner ads and outgoing links from websites that had nothing to do with their own website. In fact, the concept of PageRank was completely thrown out of gear as link building was reduced to nothing more than just a link isolation and purchase process. To ensure that link building was a sane and meaningful process, Google implemented an algorithm that took into account the quality of each outgoing and incoming link known as the relevant link algorithm.

In a nutshell, no matter how high the PageRank of the website providing the outgoing link the link will only add to the PageRank if it is deemed ‘relevant' by Google. For example, a laptop website should ideally carry out link building by receiving incoming links from directories, computer websites, and other computer hardware companies. Even if the laptop website has an incoming link from a chocolate website or a used cars website, Google will (in all probability) neglect the incoming links. In fact, the reason why webmasters have started utilising the services of search engine optimizers for link building is to ensure that all links generated are relevant and permanent.

Another factor that has made relevant link building a complicated task is that Google has started penalising webmasters for buying links from websites. Contrary to popular belief, even if an incoming link is from a ‘relevant' website but Google believes the only reason the link is present is because a webmaster has paid for it, the link will be noted as a paid link and will be disqualified. In fact, over a period of time the number of websites that have been penalised or have lost PageRank due to irrelevant or paid links has risen.

Webmasters that are planning to carry out link building should make sure they research all their link building options and make sure that all incoming links are from relevant websites. Since the Google paid links algorithm is still in its initial stage it is difficult to predict which paid link will be picked up by Google. In a nutshell, it is always a good idea to keep the Google paid links algorithm in mind while carrying out link building; and directories and content based websites are still the safest bet when it comes to link building.