Determining Link Value & Relative Value
Why is the Link Hierarchy Important
It's pretty much the professional consensus that the two foundation elements of Search Engine Optimization are Content and Links. Considerable web content including SEO Articles and entire websites have been devoted to the
topic of link building, but never to our knowledge has the actual Relative Link Value of any given individual link been charted. The Link Hierarchy Chart below displays from low priority to high the perceived value of any
given inbound link leading to a web page. The value of a link pointing to your web page content is important due to the link's ability to pass value or authority to its target. Taken to the core of the argument we're trying
to enumerate what goes into Link Juice. If you expect to achieve page one rankings on major search engines for highly competitive keywords some serious Link Juice will be required to attain and maintain top rankings
positions in the organic search area of web content display in SERPs. Values are estimates only based upon over five years of observation analyzing internet web pages, experimentation over time with continual efforts
attempting to rank a page for a highly competitive keyword, and on analyzing editorials on other leading SEO Authoritative sites. Attempting to quantify this topic and assign value is open to ongoing debate and is flexible,
ever-changing, open to comment, and is proprietary trade secret information that varies from one search engine to another.
Bad Links include any that rest in spammy directories or from Link Farms or
from useless published pages. In addition ROS Links, or Run of Site on every single page are not good and could be perceived and evaluated as web spam to the algorithms. Any paid link could be risky. Image links are nearly useless
from an SEO point of view. To discuss this topic further try our Denver SEO Consultant support professionals.
Link Hierarchy - Link Value Approximation/Estimation Chart
Basic Broad Category - Lowest Value Originating From
- Current site's Internal Web Pages Navigational Bar Panels
Other site's internal web pages Connections - Leads
to Link Popularity
Low Value Directories Attained from Directory Submissions
Free Blogs and Forums
Dynamically Generated pages
Unrelated topic sites
Resource Pages with fewer than 15 outgoing links
Pages 2-3 clicks away versus in the Root Directory (better)
Footer Links, or any hyperlink only recently acquired
Inbound Bookmarks where other users Bookmark your pages
Reciprocal Links are gradually decreasing in value
Profile from Myspace, Facebook
Medium Link Value Category - More Link
Juice Passed to Target Blogs resting on paid-for accounts versus free blogs
Home Page Sources
Variable Anchor Text Links from indexed sites
Links originating with page placement near the top or Header Section
Higher quality sites such as Twitter
Government, City, or Local Chamber of Commerce
RSS Feeds and Blog Rolls
Links from Root domains versus originating from subdomains or subdirectories
Sites with High Domain Rank or established Domain Trust
Pages themselves having many ingoing links (check Yahoo Site Explorer)
Static URL, or any regularly crawled (ie. Spidered) content
Aged Links and web pages that have been published for many months or years
High PR pages that Don't Use the No-Follow tag (although no-follow is diminishing)
Trusted Site Back links especially if they have highly correlated topics
Directory Listing as long as the page has minimum outgoings links
Contextual Links originating from within same site's paragraphs body of content
Links with surrounding contextual content matching the anchor text
Rich Keyword Anchor Text hyperlinks
Like-topic complementary niche web pages
Page Ranked Pages eg. PR2+ and/or historically Indexed by Google
Social Media Marketing Sites and Hub Authorities (eg. Hubpages)
Article Biography Resource Area
Profile Sites such as Linked-In
High Link Value Category - Sought After - Strong Influence - Necessary for High Rankings Web page that itself has a significant quantity of links pointing to it
Permanent Links: Press Releases, Published Articles
Highly Ranked Page for a particular head or long-tail keyword with like topic as target page
PR4+ content
High Alexa Traffic Rank
Major Worldwide Directories like DMOZ, Yahoo Directory, Topical
Directory with Page Rank
Ranked Page with few outbound links pointing out to other sites
Any Naturally Acquired voluntary incoming hyperlinks from same industry
.Edu and .Gov Authorities
The more "link attributes" associated with a particular link the more synergistic value it can pass from the source to the target destination. Multiple desirable factors can be accumulated such as: surrounding contextual content, actual anchor text wording, one
way inbound, prominent location (ie. higher position) on the web page, fewer outbound links leaving the originating page, higher quantity of inbound links pointing into the source page benefits your target page, overall relevance in related topic content, higher Page Rank value, and domain authority.
Examples of Links to AVOID in the Link Hierarchy
- Multiple links from the same Class IP Block, LinkFarms, Paid Links (they're not necessary, Spammy useless directories with no meaningful purpose.
We expect to continually update the above chart based upon gathered SEO Best Practices observations over the course of time. Thanks for your interest in our
Colorado SEO business website.
If your need Denver Link Building services please contact us today
for expertise in marketing your website online using our experienced team of Search Engine Optimization Colorado pros.
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