What is a good link?

[northweb]

Who would you trade links with.

1) grey bar but the page is in googles index would you swap?
2) If a link has a white bar.
3) If a link has a pr1 - pr2.

Do any of the links above have value for search engine ranking.

Lets discuss this, as I'm sure it would give everyone some direction.

[LifeinAsia]

These are some of the questions you should be asking instead:
A) Is the site/page relevant to yours?
B) Is the site spammy looking or consist mainly of links?
C) Is it a resource you would feel comfortable directing your users to?

[edited by: LifeinAsia at 6:55 pm (utc) on Oct. 14, 2008]

[martinibuster]

northweb, all three of your criteria are flawed because they rely on the Google Toolbar. It's a profound shortcoming to rely on their toolbar because imo it has been engineered to influence your efforts in a less than optimal way. With it they can and do influence you. All three of your criteria are dependent on Google like a crackhead depends on their dealer. :o

Never depend on the toolbar for SEO decisions. Never.

LiA has good suggestions to which I add:

• How many backlinks does the site have?
  
• How many of those backlinks appear natural?
  
• Do a significant amount of backlinks belong to the site owner?
  
• How old is the website?
  
• How popular is the site?
  
• How prestigious is the site?

All of the above are examples of quality signals. The more positive the responses the more likely you are obtaining a quality link.

[pro_seo]

Who would you trade links with.

1) grey bar but the page is in googles index would you swap?
2) If a link has a white bar.
3) If a link has a pr1 - pr2.

Do any of the links above have value for search engine ranking.

Lets discuss this, as I'm sure it would give everyone some direction.

None!

Unless you are looking for ways to increase just the PR of your website, acquiring links based on PR doesn't work.

Martini has some good suggestions for you to follow, in addition to what Martini has said, I would suggest:

1. Get links from websites that are always in the mode of constant content addition, such sites have a higher tendency to acquire links naturally by virtue of the regular content updates.

2. Check the quality of the backlinks pointing to the page..are they from dirs or are they from various industry specific blogs, edu and org domains.

This seems like hard work..but getting 10 links from such quality pages will achieve far better results than getting 1000 links from crappy sources any time.

[System]

The following message was cut out to new thread by martinibuster. New thread at: link_development/3773524.htm [webmasterworld.com]
3:19 pm on Oct. 25, 2008 (utc -8)

[cabowabo]

A fresh cache date of the page hosting your link is one that was left off the above lists and is VITAL in my book.