Links In or Out Whats Good or Bad

The last post was all about tuning your blog by managing the amount of outgoing links ( Including Blog Rolls ) now lets look at this in more depth why all links are not equal both in and out

What are considered good links out by Search Engines

Well Search Engines look for links out to authority sites on a similar subject I will give examples after all the rabbiting I will do

What are considered good links in by Search Engines

Well it should be no surprise links in are measured on the same basis ( That was easy and now you want to know what the hell is an Authority Site )

The Search Engines consider a number of factors when defining an authority site

1. Depending on what the blog is mainly about will depend what it is considered an authority on ( this is why specialist subject blogs do better ) Plus the Blog Title will also affect what the search engine thinks the blog is about
   
2. Where do the links come from for that Site / Blog
3. How old is the Site / Blog
   
4. Is the site about similar stuff ( it does not have to be about exactly the same thing for example a link from a farm that happens to have horses is still OK and does not count against you
5. Do lots of visitors like the site and add to favorites
6. Is the blog updated frequently with good content

Well that was easy ( now you know what you should include on your blog roll )

PS A way one link from an authority i.e. them to you is better than a link iether way but if you do not link to them they may drop your link which could hurt you in two ways

1 Visitors to their blog / site will not find out about yours
2 You will no longer have an authority link to your site / blog

What are considered BAD LINKS OUT or not as highly rated by Search Engines

It is easier to give examples stating the worst kind first

OK a link from a gardening blog to a gambling blog would be very very bad or a link from a
Cooking blog to a mobile phone blog would not be considered that great , as you move closer to what your blog is about the better it is

Now lets look at links in to your blog / site

With this you just need to think logically a forum talking about horses with your blog mentioned in the post would be great and considered good but a forum talking about cars with a link to your blog would not seem logical .

Now many of the heavy hitting SEO webmasters will buy links on anywhere mainly dependent on price which is why Search Engines now look at the link but also where it came from and could it be related.

A new type of link buying has taken off called pay per post with the same cause and effect i.e does the link go a site in anyway related to where it was posted and the same the other way .

Most smart webmasters have now worked out that if you are buying links the site where you are buying from should be related to the subject matter the link or PayPerPost is about.

Even then if the site is mostly doing PayPerPost or Payed Links over quite a short period of time the Search Engines do spot the footprint and in some cases the links out are discounted and the site giving the links loses it's authority status

Hope this has helped can be a difficult concept to explain and grasp the first time of reading

steve