As in any effort, you can't improve if you have no idea what you did right, or wrong. If the purpose of the site is simply to state a personal or company viewpoint, you do not need feedback from the user or links to similar sites. To inform a user, you will almost always require one, or more, links to similar sites to convince the user that you are not the only person, or organization, in the universe with this thought. Links to other sites provide credibility and persuasiveness to your concept. Avoid links to your direct competitors unless you are quite sure that your product, or opinion, is obviously superior.
Feedback can be in many forms.
Nielsen's biweekly newsletter is here. The purpose of the site must be clear to the user. Distracting elements can obscure, or even defeat, the site's purpose. The attention span of a typical internet user is measured in seconds. The end result of any site always involves action on the part of the user.