With the changes rippling through the SEO world that spawned from a stone called Jagger thrown by Google; I predict there will be many changes in the way people start to think about link popularity in 2006. Many new and inventive ideas(schemes) will arise from the ashes of dropping SERPS in hopes of adapting to apparent changes in Google’s devaluing of link exchanges and gaining respect for in-content-linking. The following is my predictions for 2006 so no one can ask who thought of it first :)

Link Pyramids
This will be the new world of link exchange directories until the major search engines catch on and figure out a way to stop them. One site joins the program and places a page on their site containing a link to the first site to join. Then another site joins and places a page on their site that has links to the two sites. Then a third and a fourth…so on and so on. That way when you join, you only link to sites that joined before you and don’t have a link to you, and every site that joins from that time on links to you, even though you don’t have a link to them. The more the link pyramid grows, the more one way links each member gains. The inherit benefit of this goes of course to the sites that join quickly. However the sites that join later when the pyramid is growing much more rapidly gain one way links much much faster. For those of you who don’t yet grasp this concept I’ll put it into numbers for you. If you are the 10th person to join a link pyramid that gains an average of 50 members a day, by the end of one year you will have gained 50*365-9=18,241 one way links for the small price of 9 links on your site. If you are late to the trend and don’t get in until the 100th day, you still get 13,241 one way links to your site by the end of the year, but will probably have to place a whole directory of links on your site. However if you only link to the directory from one location within your site, and lets say for example you pass a PR4 to it, mathematically you will still gain much more PR to your main page from the 13,241 one way links. I’m not saying it’s the greatest idea in the world or if it’s even possible to get off the ground, but I still predict someone will think of it and manage to pull it off before the year is done. The search engines will have a fit!

Content Directories
This will be the temporary solution to Google’s new found love of in content links. Advertisers and Exchanges will start placing directories containing whole pages of content written by the link providers for publishers and/or other members to place on their sites. They will pitch it as, gain content on your site and get paid/gain HIGH QUALITY links of your own. I realize concepts of this are already in practice, but I predict it will become quite a bit more developed before the year is done. Already advertisers are paying publishers to place single content pages on their sites. We are only a hair away from full content directories being placed on sites, and the services being rendered for free.

Article Directories
Boy that phrase Content Is King is really getting pounded into people’s brains. Lets face facts: article directories are exploding all over the net. The problem you ask? There’s not a single GOOD article submitter. I’ve done my research on this matter. You may argue that there are ones that work and may even submit to quite a few article directories, but all it will take is one quality programmer to put in some actual effort with a good open source community backing him up before this marketing method completely explodes and search engines will have to start thinking of ways to stop it. Duplicate content?

Google Will Surprise Us
Google will develop a set of algorithms that look at each individual pages on a site. If that page contains over a certain ratio of outbound links to content(pages that are inherantly link exchange pages) the page’s ability to give “votes�? will be greatly devalued with certain exceptions for authority sites like DMOZ of course. If i see this in the next Google patent I’m gonna sue and buy beer for members of WPW with the money :)

Celebrity Blogs
Com’n…admit I’m right. Small brained, big egoed celebs mesh with technology to allow themselves the power to express to the world what they think about stupid sh*t like politics and society have been a ticking time bomb ever since Rosie Odonald first told us who to vote for.