Link Dev Advice

New to SEO have some general questions :)

[Regency]

Hello everyone, wondering if I might ask for some advice. I have been given an opportunity with my employer to learn SEO marketing and have been doing a lot of reading (here and elsewhere) and surfing in order to educate myself on this topic. What I am gathering about SEO in particular is that most of the strategy is based on finding related, authoritative,informative sites that would be useful to our visitors. Ok sounds good so far but just how strict do you want to be with regard to the quality of the sites you link to? EX: If a site has multiple links but they are 90% topic related and 10% totally unrelated would this still be considered valuable? How about 80/20? I ask this because from what I am understanding I am concerned that the search engines will look at a site like these and consider the amount of links to be an attempt to gain higher rank and not necessarily offering valuable information to visitors hence devaluing the recip link possibly even with a site that has a 90/10 split. This seems very likely based on what I am reading so my question is: Am I to be VERY picky when choosing sites? Or is there value in experimenting alittle with sites by adding a high quantity of links even if some are a little cheesier than others? (as long as they are not too cheesy!) Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
Also, I am wondering is it logical for websites offering a product or service to agree to a recip link with us if our site will be listing their site along side multiple other sites offering the same service? What is the advantage for them? My guess at the answer to this would be: it's the same as being listed in a directory but it's free. Is this correct? But will they really want to link to us on a decent page on their site or will they be more likely to bury us on a bad page? Should this matter or is a link to a site that is offering the correct service valuable no matter what page your listed on?

Any advice would be greatly, greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance :)

Roxx @ Rgncy

[martinibuster]

>>>just how strict do you want to be with regard to the quality of the sites you link to?

There is no single answer for that. It has to be qualified by the site you are promoting, how long it's been around, and how long you want it to be around.

>>>EX: If a site has multiple links but they are 90% topic related and 10% totally unrelated would this still be considered valuable?

90% sounds reasonable.

>>>How about 80/20?
80% sounds reasonable.

Am I to be VERY picky when choosing sites?
You already asked this question and I answered it already.

>>>Or is there value in experimenting alittle with sites by adding a high quantity of links even if some are a little cheesier than others? (as long as they are not too cheesy!)

Either it's cheesy or it's not cheesy.

>>>Also, I am wondering is it logical for websites offering a product or service to agree to a recip link with us if our site will be listing their site along side multiple other sites offering the same service?

Isn't that what DMOZ does?

>>>But will they really want to link to us on a decent page on their site or will they be more likely to bury us on a bad page?

Most webmasters will want to bury you on the worst page they have. You don't have to do that, nor are you obliged to link to those people.

>>>Should this matter or is a link to a site that is offering the correct service valuable no matter what page your listed on?

It doesn't matter. As long as the page is getting spidered that's what counts. Check the backlinks of sites listed on those recip pages and if the site shows up then the light is green, move forward.

[Regency]

Thank you sooo much! Your advice is truly appreciated! I am really looking forward to the challenges of the SEO world. From everything I've been reading it seems like the type of work/process that really keeps you on your toes. :) Thanks again!

[ken_b]

how strict do you want to be with regard to the quality of the sites you link to?

This is your site, hopefully it's important to you. How do you want it to be regarded by visitors? If you don't care what others think about your site and business, go ahead and link to any trash site that will link back.

If you do care, be carefull and go for quality over quantity.

Or is there value in experimenting alittle with sites by adding a high quantity of links even if some are a little cheesier than others?

As MB said, either it's cheesy or it's not. If you link to cheesy sites, what does that say about you?

Also, I am wondering is it logical for websites offering a product or service to agree to a recip link with us if our site will be listing their site along side multiple other sites offering the same service? What is the advantage for them?

If you are talking about sites offering complimentary products and services the advantage is that linking to you adds value for their visitors, and credibilty to their site.

If you are talking about comparable products and services it gets a little harder to find the advantage, but there might be one. For one thing it can show a strong confidence in their own offerings.

In either case, it isn't likely that they are going to expect to be the only site you link to.

But will they really want to link to us on a decent page on their site or will they be more likely to bury us on a bad page? Should this matter or is a link to a site that is offering the correct service valuable no matter what page your listed on?

It really depends on a lot of factors. A link from a home page may not happen often, but that doesn't mean every sub page is a bad location either. What you want are relevant links on easily found relevant pages.

On a seperate note, don't forget about traffic from links, which is pretty much where linking started out. If you want links that will generate incoming traffic for you, it might be a good idea to place your outgoing links where they are likely to generate traffic for the sites you link to.

[Regency]

>>>As MB said, either it's cheesy or it's not. If you link to cheesy sites, what does that say about you?

I agree, all the hard work only to be viewed as a "cheese" supporter? Doesn't make sense.

Quality over quantity sounds like a good place to start. Out of 300 sites I reviewed this morning I found 15 that look good for links probably could drop 2 or 3 of those as well. I suppose I'll be lucky if I get 2 or 3 to link back out of that 15 huh? (fingers crossed)

>>>What you want are relevant links on easily found relevant pages.

makes sense... I've been using a link finding program (only for the search capabilities) and have been amazed that some of the link pages for some of the sites are buried so deep in the site that you can't even work your way back to the home page and vice-versa! very sneeky LOL

I appreciate the input!