There has been a lot of discussion in the SEO world as to how much links affect your search engine placement. A new theory is being tossed around that Google has added a dampening filter to incoming links, not giving them full credit immediately in the search results.

A short while ago it was once thought safe to purchase links on other sites for an immediate surge in search listings. Now the result may not be all it once was. Although incoming links are great for a website for many reasons other than search engine optimization, the theory says that they won’t be an immediate factor in Google Page Rank and link popularity until the link ages. This theory spawns from the Google Sandbox theory, that all new websites are kept out of the search results from one to 6 months. WebProNews gives an in-depth look at the link filter theory.

New incoming links are much sought after by every website owner and blogger. It’s generally agreed that having abundant relevant incoming links provide a boost to a site’s search rankings. Conventional search engine optimization wisdom, coupled with experience with incoming link power, would seem to bear out that fact.

Search engines, led by link obsessed Google, value incoming links very highly, at least so we think. Some search engine optimization experts have started to place some very important caveats on the incoming link power theory.

Instead of automatically assuming the more incoming links the better, other factors may have come into play. The constant evolution of search engine algorithms, they say, may have morphed past the value of incoming links.

The dissenters from the link power concept believe, as do most modern SEO professionals, that link relevance is very important. As a victory of quality over quantity, that idea makes good logical sense.

[Read the rest of Google's New Link Filter]