Just wondering what everyone thinks about link development and how it can improve SERP's. Would a bunch of directory links do? Would real blog links be better? What about on actual sites, for example, the links you get from textlinkads. Also are free directories any good for link development?
A few hours of free directory submission can take a PR0 to PR2 without blinking an eye. As long as they're directory and not FFA pages you should be fine. Always nice to add a few each day so you get a progressive gain
Spread it around. There isn't just one way to get good backlinks. Diversity counts. Links in forums like this one or others with high PR. But PR isn't everything. Quality and relevance counts too. Blog links are being carried with higher weight than before because Google likes fresh content. Getting indexed in Google in fact, through blog submissions will get you more traffic and PR than some PR0 directory does. Just my 2 cents.
Google is cranking on paid links, thats a rumor. I would rather go with blog comments, social networking without NOFOLLOW.
What really matter is the quality of those backlinks. It's all good to have backlinks from blogs, social bookmarking sites, links via TLA, or regular websites. But it's better to focus on the quality. This old thread of mine may be a help. Tips for buying links
I agree with mick535 - diversifying your strategy and having a plan in place. I use articles, blogs, forums and web 2.0 pages for my on going link building effort to my site and my client's site- you can check out my overall strategy on this video that I made here - http://searchtrafficteam.com
links can improve your serp . search engines use anchor txt to recognise your site content. you must have all types of backlinks (directory, forum signatures, blog posts etc) to have good serp positions
As all have suggested for offpage optimization for getting into SERP you should also consider onpage factors such as great keyword rich contents, keywords in title tag, h1 tag etc.... Good contents and relevant backlinks are most important in SEO.