Minimum Link Qualifications
-
I'd like to get everyone's thoughts about the minimum quality/authority thresholds that you look for in link-building.
What is the minimum PA/mR/mT/DA/DmR/DmT that you like to see before investing time in acquiring a link?
At what point is the link not worth the effort (or, in the case of a directory listing, the cost) of acquiring it?
-
Thanks for the responses.
I know I could have gotten the link by now. It's not a question of time but of money, but let's not get too sidetracked by that.
I've paid for Yahoo, etc., directory listings and have seen some benefit, especially for new sites that I am trying to get on the map in terms of SEO.
We're getting hung up on a diversion (the fact that I'm paying for the directory listing). People pay to join BBB, Chamber of Commerce, Yahoo, Business.com, etc., because the sites are authoritative directory listings. Most of them wouldn't do it without the link because they know the link carries SEO value. I would submit this isn't the same thing as paying an Indian SEO for a link from his buddy's spammy site. If you disagree, fine. But maybe we could hold of the "don't by links" refrain for a little while. I know that some folks have been drinking the Google Kool-aid for so long that they can't think about this sort of thing logically. I'm not doing anything black hat here. So let's forget about the paid part. What I want to know is this: What is a worthwhile link? Assume it takes me 4 hours to get every single link and I don't pay a dime for any of them. What links are worth targeting and which aren't?
Thanks again for your thoughts. Any additional comments would be appreciated. I am new to the SEOmoz tools (still in the evaluation period) and am trying to find out if they will help me with link-building.
-
don’t buy links they don’t work long term.
Don’t bother about page rank and the stuff, in the time you are debating wether of not you could of got the link. every natural link is good, and you will surprised what links give you a boost.
-
If you're going to pay for it then treat it like a paid ad. Compare CPC (and conversions) for that listing (ad) over time, compared to other paid ads you could buy. If it's a low cost, high-performing ad then maybe it's worth it.
I have had many discussions with people who have paid to be in relevant sections of Yahoo!'s paid directory (for example) and almost all of them told me it's not worth it.
Now, if you have some niche directory with relevant traffic (and a lot of it), and if your competitors are all listed there already then it might be worth it.
But, personally, I'd rather save my moeny and let the organic (free) links/traffic build up over time. Buying link juice via paid links is not a good idea (IMHO). It is a recurring charge and just gets to be too expensive over time. Now, if you are getting profitable conversions from it then that's totally different. I'm just addressing the idea of buying link juice.
-
Thanks for the response, but how can you say you wouldn't do it without knowing the value it would pass to your site? I assume it's worth something to be listed in a high authority directory. My question is: Where is the cut off?
BTW, it's a paid directory, but it's not spammy (think BBB, Chamber of Commerce, etc.). It has value other than the link, but the link is what I am most interested in.
I don't put much stock in PR. I'm looking at the mozrank quality indicators.
-
Are you talking about a paid link in a niche directory, or a free link? Obviously if it's free (and not spammy) then just do it. It's worth it. If it's paid then I probably wouldn't do it.
Your biggest cost will be time, since you probably don't want to pay cash for any links. To be time efficient, you need to be really organized with a spreadsheet or 3rd party software and, yes, start by eliminating low-ranking pages. Go for the gold first. Work on those PR7 and higher sites. Then PR6, and so on down the line. Do everything that is relevant (and on-theme) that is PR5 or higher. Below that you can work on them as time allows.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Affiliate link building
I saw articles that said affiliate link building is not good. We are a training company that offer only some training programs. My idea is get other training company to link back to us, but only if they do not offer the same training as we do. We could reward them by giving them commission if the sale happens. But to do this we will need to track the URL where the hit came in from from our website. Is this a good idea or not?
Link Building | | Heinwest0 -
Reddit LInks
Are Reddit links worthwhile? I hear they are sometimes follow and sometimes not follow. Also what about links verses self links? I'm pretty handy with reddit so I can probably make content that would actually be upvoted a lot. Let me know, thanks.
Link Building | | RafeTLouis1 -
How do I search for a link within a competitors website that is linking my website?
Hello, I have just been checking my link profile and according to webmaster tools a competitor is linking to my website. Is there anyway of finding this link besides looking at every page within their website? Many thanks
Link Building | | mblsolutions0 -
Footer Link Issue
Hi, I run Web Design Business, I got Links from 1000 Domain "Powered by xyz" pointing to my domain (Footer Link) Footer Links Are Not (Inherently) Bad ? Footer Link may Hurt my Site?
Link Building | | srinathk0 -
Linking to a pdf
Hi All I have a pdf that people can download from my site, what I want to know is that when people link to the pdf does the pdf share link power to pages linked to from within the pdf (like a html page would) or is the link power being waisted going to the pdf and should I somehow get the links to a normal page? The pdf is a free downloadable resource to people in the party planning industry and so gets linked to quite a bit by sites telling their readers to get the information we provide. Thanks for your thoughts Sean
Link Building | | SKE0 -
Link building
Hello all ! I would love some opinions about one Link Building technical aspect from SEOs, link builders ... How important is the number of outgoing links on the page you have the opportunity to place a link ? (from a scale of 1-10 / what about where dose this factor fits overall with your check list , as important to consider as far as link building) Would you place a link on a page with 200+ outgoing external links if the page is ok (not involved in selling links, all links are related with the subject, target page, anchor text etc) or you would go with a link on a 10-15 links per page but not that 'powerful' and not that related (not spammy but more general on the subject that can contain links to some other non related resources). Eg: Option 1: www.whatever-name.com/links.html the entire domain is about x. It has 250 links in that page (in the links.html) all links on the links.html pages are somehow related / resources with x. Your link can be placed with an anchor text related with x that will target a page on your site related with x. Domain page rank : 6 (as a general indicator), Page PR, the links.html one, PR: 2 Option 2: www.some-other-name.com/x-is-so-great the entire domain is NOT about x, just the page. It has 5..10 links in that page (external links more or less related with x - but not spammy) Your link can be placed with an anchor text related with x that will target a page on your site related with x. Domain page rank : 3 (as a general indicator), Page PR, the links.html one, PR: 1 What's your best option ? Thanks !
Link Building | | eyepaq1 -
What to do with some good links I have?
I have some pretty strong links from relevant sources linking to the homepage of a site I deal with. The links are usually from a PR3-5 pages and display specific result about the linking site. Sometimes they come from badges. We offer several services, so sometimes the page is about one service and next time about the other. Currently all of my pages link to the homepage. Would it not be better to link to the specific product page related to the page I have? Also I can do a canonical to the service pages? Which would be best?
Link Building | | Svetoslav0 -
What link would be better?
Okay, I found a niche blog that has a google PR6. They have a ton of dollow blogroll links, as well as a ton of internal links on homepage. Would I be better off getting the blogroll link? Getting a link in an existing post with a lower PR? Getting an advertiorial written with a link in it? I just don't know. It has a domain authority of 33 currently. It's not a cheap link for blogroll. The in-post, or advertorial isn't too bad, but not cheap either. Thanks in advance.
Link Building | | azguy0