BBC Link

How to evelaute

[irldonalb]

Hi All,

I got a link from a BBC article this morning.

How do you put a value on this? A few points:

- Anchor text is the company name and we're already first for that phrase.
- I checked articles in the same section from 12 months ago and they are all a PR 1 to 2.
- It's currently one click from a PR 8 page but this link will be gone in 24 hrs (I would imagine).

Thanks
Donal

[Receptional]

Oh - I think BBC links are great. It's one of those times when it is a great "brand" link. Over time the page will disappear into obscurity, but before that happens, I would get links TO that article from your own blogs - Be rightly proud that the BBC mentioned you. (It wasn't Watchdog, I hope!) your link to the article will be paid back in kind with the authority of the BBC stamp of approval.

I just checked "site:bbc.co.uk mysite.com" on Google and both my BBC links are still sitting in Goog;e's index. One from 2003.

Slow burner :)

[martinibuster]

Yeah, I can't speak for how Google feels about links from sites like the BBC, but I feel that those kinds of links validate your site, give extra points to it in the algo scoring. It says your site is important. In the long run a single link from a media site isn't going to make your site, however imo the more of those you attain the more important the algos are going to feel your site is.

Have your web designer make a new banner/header for your site and have her/him slap a little slogan crowing "as seen on the BBC." and stick that in your About Us page with a link back. Then mention that in a link request.

I was chatting about this last night and we all agreed that receiving these kinds of links and other "validations" are a great help for acquiring more links. In other words, the utility of such links does not end have to end with the link itself.

[edited by: martinibuster at 4:00 pm (utc) on Oct. 9, 2009]

[piatkow]

Don't forget that these are also links that real people will follow.

[irldonalb]

Cheers for the comments.

My two cents:

Direct Value - Little value from customers clicking on the link and adjustment to the algorithm.

Indirect Value - I think this link helps us become more of an authority site in our Industry. It also gives us scope to do other ‘linking’ under Google's radar.

[anand84]

A PR0 site of mine got linked by Washington Post last week. Now, the link is already buried into obscurity. I hope Google noticed the Washington Post link and gave it some value...