Seomoz research tools question for inbound links

[sfmatthews]

What is the best seomoz tool and or indicator within a tool for checking on a link (directory or article site) to evaluate whether or not you would actaully want a link from them? Any way to see if google penalizes them for there tactics or if that can hurt me by them linking to me or whatever?

I am at the beginning of a link building mission, but want to ensure that I do it methodically and correctly as possible based on the combines wisdom of this community.

Thanks for your help,

Steven

[AnthonyMangia]

Open Site Explorer is the tool you are looking for.  Generally, you want to seek out links from websites/pages that are relevant to your niche and have a strong Domain/Page Authority, which is a reflection of the strength and diversity of their inbound link profile.  The more authoritative the page or domain, the stronger the link.

As for determining if a website is low quality (beyond SEOmoz authority metrics), you can use Open Site Explorer dive into the target website's backlinks.  You should also obviously view the website and see if it passes a quick human review - is the website well organized, filled with high quality content, and well designed?  If a website's strongest links appear spammy or their on-site tactics appear to be anything less than clean, you might want to consider moving on to the next opportunity.

In general, though, don't fret too much about making sure that each and every link opportunity presented to you is 100% clean.  It is highly, highly unlikely that your website will ever be negatively impacted by an external link; even the most manipulative link tactics are usually just ignored by Google.  Focus on keeping your on-site tactics clean and making sure that any external links ON your website are to good neighborhoods.  Moreover, focus on building links with websites that have strong followings or large communities around them - don't forget, referral traffic can be every bit as powerful as organic search traffic.

The Official Google Webmaster Blog published a great post last year about getting quality links to your site.  It may be worth the read.