I've been suitably impressed (who wouldn't be) by the sheer volume of opinion on this and other forums regarding the importance of having 'suitable', i.e. relevant links to your site.

Whilst there are many sites which are in vaguely the same line of business as me, none offer the same service. I am literally unique on the Internet.

To clarify; I am an independent surveyor in the remedial treatments industry in the uk. There are lots of business who offer remedial treatments, and who have surveyors on their staff, however, I am literally the only independent surveyor - I don't offer treatment!

Consequently, I can't link to anyone else who is exactly the same and, to make matters worse, of the few hundred or so remedial treatments companies, the number who have links facilities can be counted on one hand.

Therefore, at least in my case, how does Google know what a 'relevant' link is and secondly, would any old link do in it's place if I can't get relevant ones?

Second part of this question. The sites who rank highly in the remedial treatments industry, whilst not having link facilites, seem to have reasonable PR. Do you get this accolade merely by hanging around long enough or is this just something else in the SEO spectrum I haven't quite grasped...These guys seem to break all the rules and come in at numero uno all the time!

Patrick

The PR is something that accumaltes with the quantity/quality of your links but seems to have little bearing on the search results. Regarding relevancy or it's calculation... it's a matter of speculation by all. IMO, seek links from those that are related by theme not just specific professions (EG An SEO site might seek relevant links from hosting, web design, software etc not just other SEO sites) and regional relationships.

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Yes, I agree (about the speculation). The holy grail of links is obviously very important but I can't for the life in me see how I can relevant ones. More interestingly, at least to me, is how the great Google knows what's relevant and what isn't. I can get business from real estate companies for instance, but where in the world would Google find relevance in what I do and a company that sold houses. It must be pretty smart if it does, even though business-wise, they're good links for me!

Seems to me it would be a whole lot better if Google stopped playing silly buggers and came out with rules we could all understand and then play by (God, I hope they're not watching)!!

Patrick