Natural Link Profile, low and high value links, really?

[activitysuper]

I cant really get my head around this one.

I've read a few times when building links make sure you pick up so low value links as well.

So here is an example (and lets say each link takes half hour to get):

I got 5 hours of link building and this is what I have managed to get with the time.

1. 10 high value links all with PA/DA 50-60+

2. 5 high value links with PA/DA 50-60+ AND another 5 low value links with PA/DA 10-.

Surely #1 beats #2  hands down?

[Vizergy]

You are correct.

[activitysuper]

Well you would think, but a lot of industry pros talk about mixing it up with a range of low and high value links to make the link profile look as natural as possible, im sure someone on here will disagree with me and you.

[authoritysitebuilder]

Ok, if you can get all high quality links then great! But the reality is trying to find sufficient high quality links to get top rankings can be challenging/expensive so the next best thing is to mix it up with lower quality links to bulk things out.

Link diversity does help, so that's generally why a good approach is to mix it up. Diversity has a number of benefits so it should be part of your SEO campaign.

Good luck

[KTaylor]

The biggest thing is that, if you can avoid it, you don't want a link profile that looks starkly different than the average for your category. Otherwise you might trip some red flags at the 'plex.

In my opinion, diversifying in everything you do that's SEO related is not a bad plan to minimize risk, even absent the red flag threat from Google.

[Dr-Pete]

I think we say this mostly because it's really rare for a site to have all high-value links (as @authoritysitebuilder said). I'd agree with you that #1 beats #2 - it's just that that rarely occurs.

Once you've got #1, though, it doesn't hurt to add 5 easy links - relevant blog comments, guest post on low DA sites, etc. (not spammy, per se, just not as strong). Once you have a solid base of strong links, those weaker links will benefit you. Getting those extra, weaker links, is pretty easy at that point, so you might as well go for it.

The biggest danger, and where we really push diversity, is to have nothing but low-quality links.

[activitysuper]

But what defines what quality is when increasing a link profile?

For example say I had two blogs after my article:

1. Blog with PR3, 150 facebook fans, nice layout, DA:20

2. Blog with PR2, 25 facebook fans, basic layout, DA:40

I personally would give the article to #2 because the SEO comes first any other benefit is second, a DA:40 is better then DA:20 - im going with DA:40.

So let me ask, if you now had the chance of 10 links from either #1 or #2 which one would you choose? (from a SEO benefit point of view only).

[Dr-Pete]

I couldn't tell you just from those numbers - it's a lot more complicated than that. How many links are on the page, for example? Where will the link appear (in context, footer, sidebar)? Can you control the anchor text? Is the blog relevant? Does the blog have other, spammy links? Rand has a great post on the value of a link here:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-illustrations-on-search-engines-valuation-of-links

All else being equal, in those two situations, I'd say a DA40 is a big jump over DA20. Toolbar PR3 vs. PR2 means almost nothing, and could be months out of date. The 150 Facebook fans could indicate that (1) has momentum - maybe it's growing while (2) is old/stagnating. It gets complicated fast.

[activitysuper]

Thanks for your great reply, I am noting all of this :).

When you say spammy links do you mean other guest posts which might be linking to bad neighbourhoods?

So rule of thumb mozstats will lead you true

[Dr-Pete]

Yes, exactly - if you see a blog post with 100 comments and they're all using exact-match anchor text to 10 different interests ("Free Casino", "Cheap Viagra", etc.) it's a pretty clear sign that blog's been spammed to death. Admittedly, it's not always so obvious, but you can usually spot quality problems pretty quickly.