by Chris Sisco
on August 19 2010
in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
(Drinking game – every time I say “link juice” or “backlink(s)”, take a swig!)
“Back linking” is the most important factor when it comes to improving your organic ranking. It’s crucial to know what to look for when scouting for links in order to ensure you aren’t wasting your time for minimal link juice. Here are a few things to look for when browsing for valuable back links
1) The authority of the page (Example – SEO)
There are many tools you can use to discover what current backlinks you have and what backlinks you should acquire in order to improve ranking. I use seomoz’s backlink analysis tool which allows me to find valuable backlinks based on keywords. There are many tools that mimic the same capabilities but few of them are free.
2) The content of the page (Example – Drums)
The content of the page will also determine how much link juice is passed. For example, if you are an online drum company that sells drums and you receive a link from a drumming website with the anchor text “quality drums”, your organic ranking for “quality drums” will increase. Conversely, if you received the link from a guitar site with the same anchor text, minimal link juice will be passed since there is little relevance when comparing content. This does not mean you should ask them to take the link down! Any link juice is good link juice.
3) Where your link is located on the page
If your link is located at the very bottom of the page with several other links, the saturated page will cause minimal link juice to be passed. Conversely, if your link is in the body of the article and is the only link present, maximum link juice will be passed.
Nut Shell
+ High authority page (numerous sites linking to the site linking to you)
+ Relevant content on the page linking to you
+ Link is prominently displayed in the body of the text
- Page linking to you has irrelevant content
- Page linking to you has minimal authority
- Link to your website is poorly placed