I was taught that content is #1 when it comes to getting links, pagerank, and SERP’s. Writing content that other people want to link to is the key. The problem is in my field (fence products), nobody really links to me. So I have expanded to DIY and home improvement areas and have networked with bloggers in that area (many more options). It worked for me with my last website that I recently sold to start my new one a couple of months ago.

DMOZ in my mind should be devalued to almost nothing. They are a pain in the rear to work with. Numerous attempts to get listed can simply go unnoticed without even a courtesy reply. There is no accountability there.

Boon, if you take out links, how else can search engines place more weight to a site?

Everyone is searching for that mythical first page, and every month that passes more and more webmasters are trying more tricks to try to boost pagerank, most likely through getting more links to their site.

I think what is needed is a radical overhaul… another credible competitor to google in the search area will help, especially one who will use a different search algorithm that de-emphasizes links.