Ever since Google did its groundbreaking Penguin Update last month, it seems like the whole world is talking about links and backlinks. Now, more than ever, it’s very important that you have the right link structure, both with internal links on your site and external links pointing to your site.
The key word here is “natural” – no pun intended.
All of your links need to appear natural to Google if you want to rank for your targeted keywords. Any link that suggests that you are trying to “game” or “manipulate” the system will send red flags and Google may penalize you.
SEO experts are already pointing out some obvious link mistakes, like using the same keyword phrase in all your links, getting site-wide links from a single source, using blog networks and scam blog links, over-optimizing your site with keywords, link to bad neighborhoods. …and the list goes on.
Links have become very important to the success of your site or online business, so you must have an easy way to find suitable link partners or backlinks. Obviously, you want backlinks that help your site’s rankings, not hurt them.
You need an easy way to check or evaluate any potential backlinks or even current links you have going back to your site. The old Yahoo Site Explorer can still be used (if you have a Bing Webmaster Tools account), but this service is now somewhat limited. We all need an alternative to the old Site Explorer…
So, here are 3 simple ways to check your backlinks:
1. PageRank – I know everyone says that Google PageRank is dead and not very important anymore. But ask anyone who owns a site if they would turn down a direct link from the home page of a PR7 or PR8 site and you’ll probably find that PageRank is alive and well.
PageRank is the ranking score (0-10) of how important Google thinks any site or page on the web is. Get a link (dofollow or even nofollow) from a major site and a small amount of PR flows to your site depending on how many links are on that page.
While PageRank is no longer as important for ranking your keywords, it can still give you a simple way to judge the importance of a site or page. It is still something you can use to evaluate your link partners.
2.MozRank – This is another way to find out how important a domain or page is on the web. This ranking system is run by SeoMoz.com. You can access this method using the OpenSiteExplorer site, and it will give you a Page Authority and Domain Authority number for that site or page.
It will also give you other vital information about a page or site with detailed link analysis, however full access to this ranking system is very limited unless you get the paid option. But it’s still worth a try for a very simple evaluation of any page or site. http://www.seomoz.org
3. Flow of quote and confidence – This evaluation system is run by MajesticSeo.com and gives you valuable information about a site or its backlinks. This site has created two new “flow metrics” that tell you the number of links pointing to a site, but more importantly, it gives you the amount of trust flowing through that site.
These days, it’s all about getting a vote of confidence from a high-ranking related site to boost your ranking. These two metrics will help you find good link partners. What I really like is that they put all this information in a graph, so you can quickly see how important a site is to the web.
A big drawback, to get this information you need to sign up for a free account, but I found it to be worth it. There is also a paid option, but I haven’t tried it yet. Anyway, I find this ranking system very helpful in finding backlinks. http://www.majesticeo.com
There you have it, 3 simple ways to better choose your link partners or check your current backlinks. Of course, I have always recommended that you also use the free SEOQuake toolbar, which you can place in your browser. While browsing a site, you can quickly see the PageRank, the Alexa numbers, the age of the site… and so on.
Used in combination with the other evaluation methods mentioned above, it will give you a great way to verify and evaluate your backlinks and link partners.