Often people are told that if they have links with other websites, then this will be of help to their website, so they analyse the Internet trying to find sites they can link with. They frequently do not think about whether such links are incoming or reciprocal links, but focus on any and every link they stumble across. Unfortunately, not all links hold the same value, so you should beware of links that will not benefit your website. It is therefore necessary to appreciate which links will draw attention to your website and also the ones that will have no value whatsoever. In some cases, having too many outbound links can actually damage your search engine ranking.

Which Links are Appropriate?

Ideally, you need to have links pointing to your website and vice versa so that when the search engine spiders trawl your website they can identify the links that are pointing to your site. Such links are an indication that your site is important, that the site has worth and this is why other websites have your url on their web pages. You need to always ensure that links are relevant to your particular niche. For example, if you are a driving instructor, having a link to a site promoting designer dog collars will not be of value to you, as it is inappropriate.

You should select your links with care. Some say that websites that have been around for a long time will automatically have value, but this is not necessarily the case. If such sites are not updated, they will not be crawled that often by the search engines, so being linked to these sites will not help your site very much.

You should seek out sites that have quality content, frequent updates and which also have relevance to your own site and its products and services.

What Are Less Valuable Links?

Links from link farms or paid links need to be avoided. The offers you see may look attractive, but often they will result in links that will not help your site. Often, people will visit auctions sites to purchase links. In such cases, people are renting you links. They often charge a monthly fee to place your link on their page and as long as you pay them the fee, your link will remain on their site. If you should elect to follow this route, you need to be fully aware of the type of site you will be linked to, what the page rank of that site is and exactly where on that site your own site url will be listed.

Many believe that it is pointless to purchase links from other people because with a little research and effort and a good website, you can gain links by contacting the webmaster. Of course, some will not want to link with you, but just move on to another appropriate site to your niche.

Why pay for links that may be of poor quality when you can achieve top quality links for nothing?