Relevant Links- Social Bookmarks, Reciprocals & RSS

Over the past few years of studying search engine optimization I have read and been told that my sites need to concentrate on building "relevant" links. I understand the issues with relevant links and trust ranking and avoiding link farms. I also understand that if most of the information on the page is centered around the subject matter of my sites it will help with keyword relevance to the page, but I started thinking about the trends of Social Bookmarks.

"Just when I thought I had it all figured out, I go and start thinking." -Murry Daniels, 2007

I recently added a page to Goatsmilktavern Studios web site that allows people to add their links to my links page, provided they add a reciprocal link on their web site. The system works fine and dandy, but I am linked to sites about everything from vinyl siding to tourism in Turkey. Will this really hurt me under the new algorithm? After all if I submit this post to Digg, will only SEO web sites link to it? I doubt it.

Social bookmarking is a great way to gain a lot of links fast, but how many of them are relevant? I have spent the past week weeding out the irrelevant sites that link to mine, but should I really do that? I mean, some of the sites that are linking to me have some pretty good page rank. If someone with a PR 7 web site picks up my RSS and displays it on their home page about industrial mayonnaise will some of that link juice slide down to my site, or will Google say, "web design & SEO≠industrial mayonnaise" and ignore the link from a powerful site? I am able to control what sites I link out to, but I have no control over who links to me…Can one bad link undo all of my hard work for quality links? I have read on many blackhat blogs that linking to porn and gambling sites can have a negative effect on your PR, but will a link from "Tourism in Turkey" really bring my PR down?

I don't rely on links from social bookmarking or RSS feeds, but they help temporarily. I was just wondering if the algorithm has changed dramatically, or were we wrong for all those years? Will a link to Goatsmilktavern Studios on the front page of Digg kill my page rank if the rest of the diggs are about Paris Hilton and Top Chef? If not, then why are we so worried about relevant links?

Any input would be much appreciated because my freakin' brain hurts when I try to remember the rules of SEO.

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