Quality Link Building Tips
You know I have had clients in the pass or even people that have purchased our contextual links and thought the link was not good just because of the design on the website. Which of course only very self few have though this, but there is way more to link value then looking at a design or actually the design has nothing to do with the link value of course.
I have seen numerous websites on the web that offer some major link value specially older websites that have been setting around for a long time, and generally believe it or not them old ugly sites carry more value then any one of these super nice looking new websites. When determining link value there is several things you should look for such as the age and etc.
For example take a look at some of the tips below on what to look for when getting a quality link
Age before Design
Just like I have mentioned in the last few paragraphs, age is a plus by every means, and page rank is not everything. You should judge the link by its trust and authority. For example if you get a link from a site that is dated back to 1996 your going to gain some trust from that website with enough of these links built to your website the better of you will be with rankings.
If at all possible try to get these type of links they will fire your site up and hand you some authority and thats what every new site needs.
Link Placements
A lot of people believe links with then content are the best such as contextual links and I would have to agree. When you get links from resources that are with then the content the link looks more natural to search engines and even human editors. Better yet if the link draws direct traffic your really in good hands, if you are getting links from resources pages or etc try to write up at least 250 word paragraph and then have the link placed inside the paragraph. Make sure the site owner places the link somewhere that looks natural such as on a spam free page.
Gain Links From High Ranking Sites
You know I haven’t always been so fond of this as what other SEO’s have, but try to get links from sites that are ranking on highly competitive keywords or at least get links from sites that are linking to them (such as old websites). The reason I say I have never been to fond on this is because I know of a lot of old websites that are ranking on smaller keywords or websites that are just told, but still carry some great value just because there not ranking on a highly competitive key term does not mean anything (just something to keep in mind).
How to Tell if a Link is Passing Value
Ever seen them sites that have Viagra links on them, casino and numerous other unrelated links, but the website is a page rank 8. I know I have and people continue to buy them, but I bet it passes no link value what so ever it could, but why not test it. To test a link from a high page rank or old authority site to test if its passing link love just buy the link and use bogus anchor text preferably something that will rank very easy. If the website starts ranking for the non competitive anchor text you used then its probably carries some value, but if you never see any changes in your rankings for the keyword then you might as well get rid of it because chances are it don’t carry no link value.
Don’t get tricked with Edu, and Gov Links.
When building links don’t always get tricked into buying a link just because is has a .edu and .gov extension this is just a sales pitch someone says hey I got an edu link and people think its a great link right off the bat which generally edu links are higher quality websites, but not always. The reason edu links and gov links are highly looked upon on is because they generally do come from high authority sites, but not always I have seen several edu links that carry no more value then a brand new page rank 0 website pratically, so don’t get all caught up on the .edu, or .gov.
Just because it has a .edu or .gov domain extension makes it no different from a .com, .net, or .org. Its just generally edu links are better because they come from college websites and etc. Always do extra research when obtaining links from sites like this.
Web Directory Links
There has been a lot of controversy about web directories here lately and if they still carry any value and the answer is yes. There is still a lot of quality web directories out there even the ones that got penalized still carry some value maybe not as much, but I’m sure they do. Honestly if it was me I would submit to directories such as DMOZ, Business.com, Yahoo Directory and any old web directories that have been around since the internet has started these are the best directories by far.
There is several factors to look at when building links and it would take me a day and age to write that up, but in short words the idea is to use sense when building links. I think the main concentration you should have when building links is to try to get them organically as possible through quality content and content links such as contextual links or of course links from old websites.