How Google could quickly fix the whole Links problem...

[GregB123]

A Thursday morning brainstorm that hopefully an important Google manager will see...

Google could quickly end all the problems of link buying, spammy links, and negative SEO with one easy step: Only count the 100 best follow links to any domain.

Ignore all the nofollows and everything beyond the 100 best. They can choose what "best" means.

Suddenly links would be all about quality. Quantity would not matter. Fiverr links, comment links, and all the other mass-produced spam links would literally be ignored. Unless that's all a domain had, and then they would surely be stomped by any domain with 100 decent natural links.

Would it be an improvement over today's situation?

[KempRugeLawGroup]

It's a cool thought, and it very well be an improvement over today's situation. The major reservation that jumped out at me was that it would hurt fresh content. I'm guessing 100 was a number you just threw out there, but whatever the number, once a site hits that number of quality links, they wouldn't need to produce anything else. Well, at least in terms of link building, they wouldn't need to produce anything else.

Also, different size sites would need different numbers. For example, 100 really high quality DA of 90 and above links would take my site a long time to get, but, Moz, for example, probably already has that. If you decide to make the number really high, 10,000 high quality DA of 90 then it might take Moz awhile to get that, but since neither myself, nor any of my competitors will ever reach number, it's not much of a deterrent for us to get fivver, comment links.

• Ruben

[SebastianDyer]

Hi Gregory,

I like your thinking, but Google would then need to rely heavily on other ranking factors in order to establish higher authority between websites that have equally strong links in their top 100. There's plenty of websites that have equally fantastic, relevant and followed links in their 100 - how would Google decide which one is most relevant  and authoritative?

Thinking about it, it could become quite problematic. A new startup entering an established market with a strong product or USP might be able to acquire 100+ high-quality press links and suddenly level up with a competitor who's been in the game for years - perhaps even a heritage brand - and has the extensive portfolio of good quality links to prove it.

I like the idea, but I don't think Google uses its other ranking signals enough yet to take such drastic action.

Don't you think?