How to Keep Earned Links Indexed?

[rhwd2003]

So we all know hard it can be to get links... so lets say you get a link on a VERY on topic blog but its still pretty new and just say PR1 at the moment (not that PR matters all that much) but they link out to you and its totally editorial.

Then obviously as blogs only show the latest 10 blog posts or so on the homepage, they do more posts as time goes on and it falls back on the archives pages and after a couple months I check in Google Webmaster Tools backlink report and the link isn't in there and the page is no longer indexed due to lack of authority on that domain I guess or it never got links to the actual story.

Does anyone have tips on how I can influence other sites where I have earned links that are very on topic and valuable but not all that authoritative. I know linking to them would then make it a reciprocal link that I do not want to do.

Thoughts, opinions on how to keep these links indexed and counting for me?

I know a couple years back when I went to a Bruce Clay training they had a product called LinkMaps but heard alot of negative stuff about it not working and the search engines didnt pay attn to the product.

Any help would be appreciated!

[tedster]

You could try finding legitimate ways to keep interest and traffic up for those pages. If they get new backlinks, they're more likely to stay indexed. That could become a full-time job after a while;)

[aristotle]

Very few backlinks will last forever. The way i look at it, is that a link like you describe could give my site a temporarily rankings boost, and one of the visitors that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise might give me a new backlink to replace the one that is fading away. In other words, one link can lead to another. So I'm always happy to discover new backlinks to my sites even when I know that they will eventually be lost. In the long run, for a site to sustain itself, it has to keep attracting new links.

[goodroi]

The more authoritative a webpage is the better chances the link will survive.

Sometimes even good websites go down. To help protect myself from losing links from websites that go out of business I backorder domains. Every year I end up gaining control of a few expired domains for industry associations, consumer guides, etc. I just reload the original content and pay the hosting bill. That is one way I have saved backlinks.

As for saving low quality backlinks like blog comments, forum signatures etc. I find its just easier to get new ones that it is to try to save the old ones.

[Broadway]

Goodroi,
that's a great idea. But from a standpoint of copyright, can you legally do that?