Text Link Quality and Valuation Guide
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Link valuation is a difficult subject to quantify. Most SEO’s will tell you that coming up with a value of a text link is a “gut feel”, which really doesn’t help much when you are deciding to drop hundreds or thousands per month on a text link ad that doesn’t often show a completely direct correlation with your web site rankings.
“How to Valuate a Link”
Questions to ask when purchasing about the quality and value of a link
1. What is the value of the theme?
(ie: Is it a high competition/ highly monetized industry such as pharmaceauticals, gambling, or finance?)
2. What is the power of the link?
(ie: Is it helping any other sites to rank high?)
3. What is the linking neighborhood theme of the site linking to you?
(ie, The Topic of the links that link to that site. - and a comparision of how close of a “linking neighborhood” is to your site’s theme.)
4. How many outbound links are on the page giving the link, and who else do they link to?
(Lower the better and quality counts - skip the site with poker plastered all over it.)
5. What is the format of the link, how many characters for anchor text and description do you get, and do you have control to change it?
(Footer Link? Sidebar link? Run of site? Body text link? Pre-sell page?)
6. Where is the link deriving it’s power?
(Does it have any .edus or .govs linking to it? How many unique domains and C class IP addresses?)
7. What is the age of the site? (older the better)
8. Will the link pass any direct clickthrough traffic?
(Alexa is a litmus test here)
9. How many pages will the link be placed on?
(Don’t go overboard with run of site links now)
10. Will the link go to a subsection of your site or your homepage?
(Help your deep link ratio)
**note: some details added from comments
A Few More Link Buying Resources
-LinkAdage Link Buying Tips
-Text-Link-Ads.com Link Buying Guide
















11 Comments Leave a comment »
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webuildpages
February 25th, 2005,
6:56 am
Nice topic!
I’ll pitch in:
9. The linking neighborhood of the site linking to you. (ie, The “Topic” of the links that link to that site. - and a comparision of how close of a “linking neighborhood” is to your site’s theme.)
10. What is the link text used to link to the specific page that links to you (how close the Page theme (related to links in, as well as an analysis of the on page topic, is in relation to your advertisors topic)
I’d add to your #5 example “The number of the number of unique URL’s linking to that site.”
I’m not sure what “power” is in #2…I personally believe that the power is only the sum of all the items on this list.
btw, Great List…I kept writing things down, and when I’d scroll up again to see your post, I ‘d see you’d already covered it!
Stuntdubl Internet Marketing Consulting » Link Shadow - How long is a link valuable?
March 7th, 2005,
1:19 pm
[...] Wondering if anyone else has worked with this. It may be another criteria to add for the valuation of text link purchase. Comments » The URI to [...]
rck
March 18th, 2005,
12:48 pm
Hi! This entry is very cool. It brings a lot of interesting things about links in a very compact and readable form. I’ve bookmarked it.
Thank you!
René C. Kiesler.
» Hotspot Map for Link Quality? Stuntdubl Internet Marketing Consulting
April 27th, 2005,
2:55 pm
[...] link pricing criteria that Barry posted about today as well. Here’s another take on text link valuation. . . Tags: Google Adsense, Text Links, [...]
» A Blueprint for OpenRank - Text Link Valuation Litmus Test Stuntdubl Internet Marketing Consulting
May 30th, 2005,
11:45 am
[...] n the page surrounding text – length and type of link theme of the specific web page. More on text link quality and valuation The “search status” exte [...]
» Website Value 101 - How to Appraise a Website - Stuntdubl - SEO Consultant
February 20th, 2006,
7:01 pm
[...] I think website valuation is one of the most difficult questions in the world of the web. It is based on principles, but it is also based on gut feel. I don’t think you can truly value a website these days without a sense of how to valuate the links a site has. If it were based solely around principles then anyone could do it. Buying and selling websites is somewhere between buying and selling established businesses, real estate, and stocks and bonds. The magic in it is that not too many people have figured out how to do it effectively. There is so much overspeculation and instability in the space that there are wild-eyed investors all over the place chasin’ a dream that is only sometimes based on reality. Here are some questions, tools, and criteria, potential equations, and general thoughts that I would check out for appraising a single website. [...]
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July 19th, 2006,
3:39 am
[...] http://www.stuntdubl.com/2005/02/25/tips-to-valuating-text-links [...]
Claude L. Moutoussamy
July 31st, 2006,
10:42 am
What is your criteria for putting together web site traffic projections for Launch and thereafter for Situation Analysis in proposal for Grants and/or Sponsorship?
jack
January 8th, 2007,
9:01 pm
Nice site actually. Gone to my favourites. Thanks for creation.
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March 14th, 2007,
2:45 pm
[...] Todd: Testing the value of a link is critical. You really need to know the type of link popularity that is going to be passed to determine a monetary figure to associate with the link. This way you know what kind of deal you’re getting. There’s a few ways to associate a value with the link. The really easy way - use Rand’s page strength tool, or Text Link Ads Link calculator, to determine some type of value associated with what to spend on the link. It’s even more important that you understand what type of criteria they are using to come up with those values. I use these 10 tips to determine the value of a link, but generally concern myself with the most important 5 criteria to a link’s value. Question Two: In sectors where links are particularly tough to come by (retail, B2B in boring industries, etc.), what are content tactics you’ve taken to appeal to relevant sites in those industries (specific examples would rock)? [...]
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