Google and Topics?

[Cantra]

What are good quality links for Google? Someone told me that Google is now only counting links from ontopic sites. Is this correct?

[Brian Turner]

Google doesn't seem to be making much of an emphasis on off-topic linking - not at the moment (though note the SERPs have changed dramatically over the past week).

Ideally, though, all, the best quality links are not simply from on-topic sites, but from authoritive site links pages.

And never underestimate directories - I would highly recommend those looking to optimise for an expert system consider the place of directories, certainly for stabilising their link networks against future updates. I wrote a short article here:
http://www.seo-lab.com/directory-art...-directory.php
but it needs updating to account for the fact that Google has reverted to what seems like a mostly pre-Floridian system.