This entry was posted on Monday, June 4th, 2007 at 2:30 am and is filed under Text Links, SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Determining a Text Link’s Value
There has been a lot of talk on how to determine the value of a link, its quality and veracity. People ask us all the time “what should I pay for a link?” or “what links do I need to rank better?” While there are a number of values I will make an attempt to place them in to 2 categories: Most Important & Important.
Most Important Factors Determining a Text Link’s Value
1. Keyword Term Rank
Who does that link rank for your most important keyword phrase? Check and see how well that domain is ranking in your favorite search engine for your favorite keyword phrase. If it ranks high in the results- then you may want to consider this domain.
2. Competitive Terms
Look at how the domain ranks for 1-3 of your other keywords and make sure to look at the title tag. Doing so will bring to terms if serps are giving any link juice, how much juice and if there is any global link value.
3. Competitive Terms in Other Title Tags
Does the content on a linking domain rank well- or at all for competitive terms in title tags on other pages in its’ site? Look at how well competitive terms vs. the said domain showup in search results. If they are in the top 20 then the serps must think the domain is good.
4. Sponsored Links
Do you see many/any sponsored / brokered text links on the domain? A few and I’m not worried, but if they are on most to many pages then the domain may not pass the value we need.
5. Inbound Links
What is the status of relevancy of inbound links coming in to that domain? If there are a bunch of link exchange non-relevant inbound links then take note- make sure the relevancy is there. If I happen to maybe smell poo, then I investigate a little more checking the backlinks of the Poo backlinks to my said domain and see if they are involved in any blackhat efforts.
Important Factors Determining a Text Link’s Value
1. PageRank
While I don’t generally put much emphasis on this it is a measuring tool that everyone (most everyone) can understand. This is good to make sure there is no issues with the domain (grey bar) and to see what the Lord Google has to say about it. If they think it is a 5, 6 or 7 etc. then it must have some good things going on….
2. Outbound Links
I always take a look to outbound page. It’s also a good sense to check the outbound links against competitors.
3. Backlinks in Yahoo
It’s always good to see all the inbound links to a said domain. You get a good overall understanding if there are good links incoming, and if thery are spread throughout the domain, certain page(s) or if its a page that another will reference.
4. Blog Searching
Its always good to see if people are blogging to the domain in question - are they quality inbound? What sources are they from? Obviously if they come from Google, Bloglines or Technorati its a better thing to consider.
“Mysteries of the Mind” Importance (imo laughable)
1. Inbound Links - argument of the century - it’s all about the quality of those links - see #1 @ top
2. Page Rank - does it really matter other than for a newbie measurement tool?
3. Alexa - Seriously, does it really matter - Amazon should sell Books not judge traffic…
4. DMOZ - No, seriously - does it really matter - when do human editors edit anyways - I could get a kidney faster…
5. Wiki Links - where is it? - will it drive traffic because chances are it wont pass value.
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