How Powerful is Link Text?

Many bloggers are politically outspoken and view George Bush in a less than favorable light. Hundreds of people have linked to his biography page using the phrase "miserable failure" as the link text. This Google search should show how powerful the internet is, and how powerful link text is.

Part of why it is so expensive to build a current search engine is that all of this feedback and linking takes time to measure and collect. The whole time you are collecting it, everything is changing. The text used in links is going to be very important in the foreseeable future.

Related SEO Tips

Using Long Link Text
Long links that explain what the referenced page is about are a great thing not only for visitors but also for search engines.

Link Anchor Text and Surrounding Copy
Inbound links that contain semantically related anchor text to the content point to have a positive effect on rankings

What Link Text is Good to Use?
What Link Text is Good to Use? Search engines can look for noun verb patterns in text