Tools for Link Quality

[PHDAustralia68]

Hello Folks

I'm a very new at SEO... and need your help please

Currently using the Goggle webmaster tool and SEO moz to monitor back links to a site... my questions are;

1. Why do both tools show way less back links than I think I should have?

2. Does the fact that these tools not show a link I've built mean it was a bad link?

3. Finally what is some good techniques to know if a link is worth paying for?

4. Is commenting on relavent blogs actually still worth anything?

Thank you all

[PHDAustralia68]

WOW... thank you... just read your comments very helpful

Will now read the links you directed me 2

[RyanKent]

A couple helpful links:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/link-building-101-the-almost-complete-link-guide

http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo

The number of links you will see on tools will normally be less then your actual number of links. There are numerous factors involved in being able to see the link in tools:

• Which tool you are using. Linkscape (SEOmoz) crawls the web approximately every 5 weeks, and it can take 2 cycles for a link to appear depending on when it was added and when the site was crawled.

• The Domain Authority of the domain where the link appears is a factor. Domains with low DA are crawled less frequently, and not as deeply, as domains with high DA

• Page Authority is also a factor. If you have a link from a page on a great site, but the page with your link is buried numerous levels deep then that link may never be discovered.

Commenting on relevant blogs definitely CAN have value. If you offer a good comment with helpful information and occasionally add a link, then surely readers will see it and some direct traffic can be generated. Some blogs will offer followed links which then will pass value directly. Other blogs only offer "nofollow" links which may offer some value still, even if it doesn't directly improve your search ranking.

With respect to paying for links, it's a mistake and you shouldn't do it. You are violating Google's terms and your site can be completely removed from their index upon discovery. EARN links, don't buy them.