Minimum Link Qualifications

[Falconberg]

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?

[Falconberg]

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.

[AlanMosley]

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.

[scanlin]

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.

[Falconberg]

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.

[scanlin]

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.