This is a post that should help in the Link Discovery process for effective links. Below are 12 criteria to analyze when hunting for links:

1. Backlink profile to site using Yahoo [linkdomain:mysite.com].
2. Anchor text of link…and the anchor text that’s used to link to your target website…and the anchor text used to link to those websites. Basically, go back a few “generations”.
3. Placement on page.
4. Relevant text around link
5. Relevant text on overall website
6. Co-citation (related neighborhood)
7. Authority of the outbound links on page
8. PageRank matters.
9. Alexa rating.
10. Homepage vs Subpage (which is more relevant/powerful for your link?).
11. Something else to consider is, which of the websites will give you the highest clickthroughs.
12. Avoid Link Traps.

So, after your links go live, the question is…”How long until I see results?”

Remember, the AGE of the link matters in terms of aiding to boost your ranking in the SERP’s. In some cases, you will see an immediate boost in the SERP’s from the initial inertia of your Link Campaign. Then, after a day or two, you may see the rank slide back to where it was. It’s almost as if Google has the “link radar” on, and can detect the age of the link. Or, is a safeguard against advertisers buying links to increase rankings. On average…and I want to stress the word average….a link campaign will make a noticable difference after the links have aged approximately 12 weeks in the Search Engine index. According to Rand, there is some delay of at least a week or two, and possibly longer in some situations. I’ve seen the link effectiveness within 1 week. But, it depends on a lot of factors as mentioned on the list above.

An additional benefit of a 12+ week link campaign is the possibility of an increase in PageRank during the next update. PageRank is NOT an indication of actual ranking in the SERP’s. It is only an indication of how often Google crawls your website. So, as more links to your website go on more websites, that will help you increase PR for the next Google update. The reason is because as the Google spider crawls those websites, and follows the link to your site, it will crawl thru your site each time. Hence, a higher frequency crawl rate. Hence, a very high probability of an increase in PageRank during the next update.

In searching for webpages in order of importance, I like to go to Yahoo, and use the query [site:anysite.com keyword]. Yahoo sorts the SERP’s in order of importance. Another query I like to use for finding all anchor text for a keyword that points to a website is this query: [inanchor:keyword linkdomain:yoursite.com -site:yoursite.com].

If you’re a SEO Consultant doing outsourced Link Ninja work for a different SEO firm, then you might want a legal agreement in place to protect your hard work if the client doesn’t want the links you suggest. Possibly set-up a process where your client (the other firm) can analyze the potential site before committing to the purchase. In the agreement, be sure to detail how many days before the other SEO firm can call on the site themselves, after you had hunted down & analyzed, and submitted the site for their review.

Related posts:

1. Link Building to Fine Tune Powerful Websites
2. Importance of Internal Linking
3. 10 Tactics for Video Optimization
4. How To Optimize Using Internal Linking