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
-
Does nofollow link has any effect on link building
I recently read some article on noflollow link and the author says that nofollow link does have some effect on page rank. Can anyone explain the effect of nofollow link on website ranking?
Link Building | | petwho0 -
Total Links vs Google Webmaster Site Links
I am interested why the numbers between SEOmoz and Google are so different. In SEOmoz we only show 17,000ish links from 190ish domains. In Google, we show 200,000+ links from 370 domains. Why is there such a dramatic difference?
Link Building | | webspecdesign0 -
Does a hashtag link pass the same amount of link juice as a link without a hashtag?
Example 1: link to: http://www.domain.com/#something-inside-the-page Example 2: link to: http://www.domain.com/
Link Building | | adriandg0 -
Drop in the external links
Hi, We notice a sudden drop in our external links over a month (May to June). The numbers have fallen drastically from ~55K to ~28K.The followed linking root domains has changed from 781 to 776. I am using OSE to download the inbound links data an analyse, however the downloaded csv lists only about 25 links from every domain so I am unable to figure how we have lost the external links over time. But, the Domain Mozrank has seen a gradual increase. Now I suspect the reason for the DA of our site to fall from 58 to 57 is mainly because of the external links loss. Am I right in assuming this? Is there a way to figure out the lost links? Please help! Thanks,
Link Building | | madedotcom0 -
Looking at Page Authority of a link to our website... what Page Authority number should we use in deciding the link is junk?
What are the Page Authority ranges? 1. Excellent link 2. Moderate 3. Total junk link Of course you look at the anchor text you can use, how many links are on the site, how often it is cached. Thoughts?
Link Building | | RezStream80 -
How many links per week is too fast in link building?
For a new website/blog how many links per week looks suspicious or hurt the rankings?
Link Building | | aaran1 -
What percentage of my links should be directory links
I feel a lot of my link building might be a bit heavy on the directory links side. Should I limit the percentage amount of links as a part of my overall link profile? If yes what percentage of links is ok to be directory links?
Link Building | | iSenseWebSolutions0