Value of a Link for SEO

Do you ascertain the value of a link, when you get one from other website, as a process of your link building campaign.

Of course not! And, nobody does also!! Unless and until you eat link-burger, wear backlink-jacket and live in a backlink-house.

Do you know, every links originating from a website don’t posses the same value? Each link carry different value depending on various parameters.

Common Misconception

Suppose, you got a backlink from a PR5 site. Now you are jumping around that you got a PR5 backlink from an authority site.

But, in reality it’s not true. Have you checked the Page Rank of that individual page from where you got the link? It may not be PR5. It may be PR3, or even PR2.

Factors Influencing a Link’s Value

1. Google Page rank of the HOME page of the site providing the link:

Google never publish a site’s Page Rank. Instead it publishes Page Rank for each individual pages, including the Home page.

As a standard practice, everybody including SEO practitioners, take the Page Rank of the Home page as a yardstick for the site’s overall page rank. Because Home page usually garner the maximum number of links and represents the whole site.

2. Authority of the site: Authority means “ How a site in a given niche is linked by other authority sites in the same niche. ”

Authority is not directly proportional to Page Rank. Because, page Rank is the raw aggregate value of the total number of links, irrespective of niche.

High authority sites have usually higher Page Rank, but not always.

3. Page Rank of the linking page: Plays most important role while determining a link’s value.

4. Number of outgoing links on the linking page: Each outgoing link consume a portion of the passable Page Rank of the linking page. The more the number of outgoing links, the less will be the value of each link.

Suppose, the linking page has passable Page Rank x with y outbound links.

Passed Page Rank = x/y

5. Relevance of the linking page and the site: Your site is how closely related to the linking page and the site’s niche.

So, next time when you will get a backlink from other site or blog, just think about the above 5 factors. You should also consider these  factors while requesting for backlinks from other sites in exchange of guest blogging.