"We are all pilgrims on the same journey but some pilgrims have 
better roadmaps."
-	Nelson DeMille

Pilgrims of the Web need accurate road maps to find that for 
which they search. Road Maps on the Web are links to the various 
sites available on the Web and hopefully indexed correctly by the
search engines. This has become an extremely demanding situation 
to clearly define for the novice.


Google's Topical Match

To many web site owners, Google's Topical Match is more like a 
leper attempting to find friends. Site owners, like the Romans of 
old, have developed great inroads into their sites and captured 
many links during the process. Unfortunately, Google with their 
"great wisdom" pulled up the ground under those roads like a 
great earthquake and virtually destroyed the landscape.

You're probably wondering what this means and rightfully so.

Regardless of training and experience, site owners and search 
engine optimizers alike exchanged links with other sites to 
attract traffic from other web sites. The Hyper-Text Markup 
Language was developed to make linking possible turning 
previously non-connectible documents into a web of information. 
However, many web site owners acquired links to their business 
with less helpful link text. Links to external resources must 
be identified in the link text by the target. Obviously, a link 
to another web site would be either another company or web site; 
however, the title of the page or topical representation should 
be used instead of the company or domain name.

Here's the problem due to the lack of attention to detail. 
Anyone that has links coming into their web site or providing 
links to others should use the title of the page they are 
linking to. This may be hard if the page doing the linking can't 
work the target title into the link text, but something close 
should be used.

For example, the Apple Pie Shopping Cart a search engine 
friendly shopping cart must be linked in such a manner as to 
not marry the term "Apple Pie" to the primary subject of the 
site. By placing Apple Pie in the link text the site becomes 
topically matched to "Apple Pie."

Imagine the problems people have because of the search 
directories listing sites in alphabetical order and people using 
numbers, non-alpha-numeric characters and possibly the name of 
their product or company. This has turned into more problems 
than those webmasters and search engine optimization companies 
had expected. Unfortunately, there isn't much that can be done 
about links that may have existed for years except ask the 
linking webmaster to change the link text. This may fall upon 
deaf ears as those webmasters may become over burdened with the 
large task of updating tons of links.


What can be done now?

As everyone is aware, we need to be out there seeking link 
exchanges with as many sites as possible. Now, that you know 
your link text should be based upon the title of your page or 
the topic of your site, if the title of your homepage is based 
upon your company or domain name. This should be a continuing 
activity for any online business.

If you think the link text doesn't make any difference, you can 
go to Google and do a search for "miserable failure." You'll 
find President George W. Bush listed first in Google's results. 
The power of the link text cannot be ignored any longer.

In the past you've read and possibly heard me state that the 
Standards for proper web design must be used. All web sites must 
be developed and promoted using proper web development standards. 
Failing to do so will destroy your online business.

I anticipate the next move of the search engines to be a higher 
level of code validation. The search engines are already 
examining codes used in web pages. But, as we all know change 
takes time and people must be led into doing the "right thing" 
in ways they may not be aware of the lead being used.

As a point of reference, you can't lead a mule or push a mule 
due largely in part to their stubbornness, but you can coax a 
mule into doing what you want it to do through subtle suggestions
or challenges. The mass of web designers using poor HTML 
programming techniques and web design techniques can be compared 
very well with a mule. While there are those that understand, 
there are many that do not and are so stubborn they refuse to 
improve their skills.

So, where's the road map now?

The road map hasn't moved or changed; only the landscape has 
changed. All the links to one's web site still exist and people 
can find one's web site through the various search engines. 
However, with Google the landscape has been, in the opinion of 
many, replaced with a stronger foundation upon which the roads 
won't get washed away if the inroads are developed correctly.