This session is moderated by Todd Friesen.
Patrick Gavin, President Text Link Ads, Inc. He will be covering the evaluation of a link. Direct Traffic; Link Popularity; and Branding are the three main factors of the value of the link.
Theme of the Linking Page - Most value is when the link in the page contains content about your Web site. - Some value if its about a related theme or site theme (but not direct theme) - Less value in a link that has no theme to your site at all.
Traffic of the linking page - Most value in sending large traffic to your site - Less value of it sends less traffic to your site - Rough indicator is Alexa.com - Better indicator is visitor stats from site owner - Best indicator is the referral data
Incoming Links to the Linking Page - Rough indicators of this is Google PageRank - Better indicators is the quality, relevant incoming links from topical attributes (gov, edu) - Yahoo has best link command
Outgoing Links on the Linking Page - Theme of the site can be picked up based on the outgoing links - The fewer number of links on a page the better off you are (to get clicks and link pop).
Location on Linking Page - Most value is when its in the content of the page - Some value is not in the content but reasonably visible - Less value if it is barely visible - He brings up discussion on "Block Level Link Analysis"
Spider-ability - Search the linking page using the cache command - You can see if the link is cached - The frequency it is updated - Make sure your link will be found
Anchor Text - This is a heavy weighted variable in all major search engines - The more characters allowed for your test the better - Most value is the link describes what your site is about - Less value is the link doesn't describe the site (i.e. "click here")
Theoretical Example & Review - The most valuable link scenario is a link from a page on your theme, high level of traffic, large number of incoming links from authorities and small number of outbound on theme links. - The less valuable link scenario is a link from a page that is unrelated to your site, low level of traffic, small number of low quality links and large number of unrelated outgoing links
In Closing... - Buy links from a pure advertising perspective. Then look at potential traffic and link popularity benefit. Monitor traffic and track keyword movement.
Todd Malicoat (stuntduble), V.P. of Sales and Marketing We Build Pages He starts off that you do not need to know the algorithms, you need to know about your links and their value. He explains you don't need a PR9 link to rank well for ice sculptures or three word phrases. You need to balance that effort with links distributed wide on normal PR sites. Dilute the anchor text, use some click here and web site name to emulate natural link development process. DigitalGhost form WMW forum said use the 70/30 rules (70% links to homepage and 30% deeper pages). He said its very easy to buy links and you should do it (he gave Patrick a plug there). He said a good way to get links is to start an affiliate program that allows search friendly affiliate links (make sure to use a 301 redirect for those affiliate links). He said you can also beg for links. With all of them, be creative in finding links using search engines to locate them. You can also barter for links; WeBuildPages I think does some of that. All links are not created equal. He put up the Google AdSense Heat Map and said that is a good way to look at Block Level Link Analysis. He goes through what you should check for when buying links (repeated what Patrick said pretty much) check robot.txt file, check cache, check dns information, check history of site. He lists out some tools which i didnt have time to write.
Roger Montti (martinibuster), Founder and Owner martinibuster.com New Websites / Low PR Websites - Leverage your own personal network (friends, your stuff and so on) - Directories (paid and unpaid) - Paid links - Buy other Web sites for inbound links
Paid Links - Quick source for spidering - for traffic - for link popularity
Buying Websites - Look for Inactive Web sites - Search for "Temporarily Down for Maintenance" - Under-performing Web sites (search for copywrite 2002)
Directories - Niche directories are really good - General directories - Don't worry about DMOZ, submit and forget it. He talked about some DMOZ editor corruption and tricks (nothing crazy).
Long Term Strategies - Build your own backlink network - Build your own directories - Blog, Blog, Blog
Link Development for Competitive Topic - Aggressive link buying - Aggressive domain name purchases - Aggressive automated link exchanges
Final Thoughts - Consider outsourcing link development - Build an attractive links page, - Choose the appropriate strategy for your Web site.
Check in Yahoo! is there is a real back link value in a page or directory.
Todd Friesen (oilman), Owner/Founder Oilman Promotions
Jumped into Q & A now...
