How do I know if an inbound link offers value?
-
Is there a way to find out if inbound links that have been pointing to my site for a year or more are still offering value to my site.
I know the value decreases over time (especially press release and blog article links), but it would be nice to know how much value bring to a site.
-
No problem Everett. Thanks for the information.
-
Brad, sorry I didn't mean to imply that you were buying links. But to answer your question then, yes your links aren't going to be as strong once they drop off the home page of a blog. But that, technically, is not the same link as the one from the blog post page. Yes, you'll lose the power of the link when it's no longer on the page. It's the same as losing the link. But the link on the post page will retain its value, although that may not be much if nobody links to that blog entry.
I hope that helps. Sorry about the confusion.
Regards,
Everett
-
Hi Everett,
Good information, thanks! The reason I think they lose value is exactly what you said, they "drop off the home page" and get pushed back.
There are reasons for this quesiton other than paying for a link. For example, guest article links where you want to know if your efforts are working. Also, if you are asking for a link on a site, it would be nice to know that your link will count by looking at current links on the site.
-
Hi Brad
You should be able to look at the metrics provided by the SEO tools to see the authority of the page the link is from. If it is still a highly relevant site, with high domain authority then there would be no reason to suspect that the value would be lessened by the passing of time.
If the site or page that the link was from was devalued then this reduction of value may occur but this would be because of this rather than because time has passed.
-
Hello Brad,
Where did you hear that links lose value over time? My experience has always been the exact opposite. As for blog, PR and article distribution links, one reason it may "seem" like they lose value is because they drop off the home/index/category pages as new content is added. But in terms of a URL that has a link on it that is five years old and that same URL that has a link on it that is three weeks old - all other things being equal - I find more value in the aged link. But that wasn't your question so...
I'm assuming the only reason one would want to know this is if they are paying for links on a recurring basis. Otherwise why not just leave it up? SSCDavis is sort of correct, although I have seen sites that sell links stop passing page rank even though their toolbar Page Rank was never removed, meaning that just because a link is followable and the site has page-rank doesn't necessarily mean the links pass page rank.
The only real way (that I know of) to figure that out is to run anchor-text tests on the page. I wouldn't change the anchor text on your old links, but you could get a new link on that same page going to a different site and see what that does for your rankings for that query. It has to be anchor text that is already on your page though. So take a two or three word phrase from your page that doesn't get many searches (and that you're maybe below the #5 spot for) and get a link from the page you're testing into the page from which you took the text with that phrase. See how your ranking changes.
This, of course, won't help you determine if your old links on that page have lost any value but, like I said, my experience has been that older links are more valuable, not less.
PS: Rand does a better job of explaining this here than I just did above.
-
I agree with you about the value of links over time. I think an aged, older link from an older page is definitely stronger than the average link. I also think there is a temporal boost for a new link. So when you get a new link, it might be valued at a 7 on a scale of 1-10. After that initial window (whether it's weeks or months) it may drop to a 4 or 5, but then over time will work back up to a higher number. I think it's a bit more complex than that, but in general that's how I look at it.
I use the same criteria for looking at existing links as I do for new ones. Is the site relevant to yours? Does it have authority? Is it spammy? Does it link to bad neighborhoods? If not, I'd say it's always valuable.
-
**Is there a way to find out if inbound links that have been pointing to my site for a year or more are still offering value to my site. **
If they are followed links and the host site is still ranking and has not seen a PR reduction then they are probably passing value, especially if the topic of the site is related to the topic of the page that they are linking to. If any of these have been violated then all bets are off.... also if that site is selling links or doing other naughty things then the value of the links could have been turned off by Google and you will never know.
I know the value decreases over time (especially press release and blog article links), but it would be nice to know how much value bring to a site.
Some people think that the value of aged links is higher.
-
From a SEO standpoint if the link is on a page with good PA/DA and is not 'nofollowed' then it is still offering value.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
links
Hi, in our Google Search Console account, all of our links, built up over a long time have disappeared. they just vanished. it was for a Cardiff demolition company, we work for. any idea why links would just vanish?
Link Building | | sarahwalsh0 -
A website with a spam score of 5 is back linking to me. How important is to get that link removed?
There is a website that OSE has identified with a spam score of 5, it back links to me with a very specific key word. How important is it to have them remove those links?
Link Building | | absoauto0 -
Outbound links
We are working with a large, global customer that has asked us to link to their website from about 5,000 pages of our website. The links would either point to one page on their website, or they would point to specific pages throughout their website. Is this a bad thing from an SEO perspective, as in - would either of us be penalized from search engines for doing this?
Link Building | | Prospector-Plastics0 -
Changing links
Hi guys i wanted you views on changing the anchor text of links. I have quality links coming in but with year terms such as 2012 in there, if i want to change them all to 2013 for example would it be badly seen by Google? I cant say i feel comfortable about doing it but they are my links and are related to our products. Any advice much appreciated.
Link Building | | pauledwards0 -
Inbound links vs. internal links
Which scenario does more to help SEO - A) An inbound link from a low traffic/low page rank site to my site B) An internal link where one page of my site links to another page on my site
Link Building | | DVanSchepen0 -
Has anyone seen positive results from using Submiteaze to submit to directories? I know an SEM agency that uses it for clients' link building campaigns, but I don't know if it is worth buying. Are there better alternatives?
I would like to start a link building initiative at my company for a new website, and would like to know if the value of the links built using Submiteaze would be worth the money.
Link Building | | pbhatt0 -
Do image links with no alt tags pass link value?
"... an image link with no alt tag is useless to search engines..." according to a Nov 2007 seomoz blog post. Is this still the case in 2011? I ask because I'm about to obtain a banner link on a high-traffic site (chiefly for the clickthrough value) but I notice the site uses neither "title" nor "alt" tags.
Link Building | | Jeepster0 -
What percentage of my links should be directory links
I feel a lot of my link building might be a bit heavy on the directory links side. Should I limit the percentage amount of links as a part of my overall link profile? If yes what percentage of links is ok to be directory links?
Link Building | | iSenseWebSolutions0