How To Rate Sites For Linking
Not all sites and the links you may obtain from them are equally important. Some
links are free, some charge a one-time listing fee while others charge monthly or
annually. Especially for the sites that charge money, here are some criteria you can
use to help make the decision whether to pursue a link:
1. Make sure the site allows you to use the exact anchor text you want for your link so that it can contain your most important keywords.
2. Make sure the link use a simple HREF code format. Javascript-based links or links that redirect to another page are worthless. Also, links that display funny tracking characters in the URL are worthless. Do a View Source on the page your link will be placed on and check for the following:
a. That no redirection is used on the link (won’t pass PageRank).
b. That Javascript isn't used to code the link (Google won't see the link).
c. That the rel=NOFOLLOW attribute is not used (Google won't follow the link).
d. That the META robots tag for the page doesn't contain “NOINDEX” (page won't be indexed).
3. Use the tool at http:/www.marketleap.com to determine how many backlinks (incoming links) the site has. This is an important indicator for how important Google deems a link will be. A link from a page with many inbound links can be as important as the PR value of that page.
4. Check the PageRank of the actual page your link will be listed on - not the Pa geRank of the home page, which can be vastly diffe rent.
5. The Alexa Traffic rating of the site. This provides a rough indication of the traffic the sites receives. Lower numbers are better. Note that the Alexa rating can be manipulated so take this with a grain of salt. It is better than nothing however.
6. Is the linking page in the index of Go ogle? A link from an y pag e not in dexed by Google is worth less. Copy and pa ste a sect ion of u nique t ext from the page in the search box of Google and see if the page appears for the search.
7. Are links displayed in the cached version of the page? If not, the page probably uses some trick to keep search engines from seeing outgoing links.
8. Content on the page your link will be placed on as well as the anchor text of other links on the page. Are all the links in the same general category or does the page contain tons of links in every conceivable category and lots of spammy ads?
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