How do I know if an inbound link offers value?

[BradBorst]

Is there a way to find out if inbound links that have been pointing to my site for a year or more are still offering value to my site.

I know the value decreases over time (especially press release and blog article links), but it would be nice to know how much value bring to a site.

[GeorgeDavis]

From a SEO standpoint if the link is on a page with good PA/DA and is not 'nofollowed' then it is still offering value.

[EGOL]

**Is there a way to find out if inbound links that have been pointing to my site for a year or more are still offering value to my site. **

If they are followed links and the host site is still ranking and has not seen a PR reduction then they are probably passing value, especially if the topic of the site is related to the topic of the page that they are linking to.   If any of these have been violated then all bets are off.... also if that site is selling links or doing other naughty things then the value of the links could have been turned off by Google and you will never know.

I know the value decreases over time (especially press release and blog article links), but it would be nice to know how much value bring to a site.

Some people think that the value of aged links is higher.

[vforvinnie]

I agree with you about the value of links over time.  I think an aged, older link from an older page is definitely stronger than the average link.  I also think there is a temporal boost for a new link.  So when you get a new link, it might be valued at a 7 on a scale of 1-10.  After that initial window (whether it's weeks or months) it may drop to a 4 or 5, but then over time will work back up to a higher number.  I think it's a bit more complex than that, but in general that's how I look at it.

I use the same criteria for looking at existing links as I do for new ones.  Is the site relevant to yours?  Does it have authority?  Is it spammy?  Does it link to bad neighborhoods?  If not, I'd say it's always valuable.

[Everett]

Hello Brad,

Where did you hear that links lose value over time? My experience has always been the exact opposite. As for blog, PR and article distribution links, one reason it may "seem" like they lose value is because they drop off the home/index/category pages as new content is added. But in terms of a URL that has a link on it that is five years old and that same URL that has a link on it that is three weeks old - all other things being equal - I find more value in the aged link. But that wasn't your question so...

I'm assuming the only reason one would want to know this is if they are paying for links on a recurring basis. Otherwise why not just leave it up? SSCDavis is sort of correct, although I have seen sites that sell links stop passing page rank even though their toolbar Page Rank was never removed, meaning that just because a link is followable and the site has page-rank doesn't necessarily mean the links pass page rank.

The only real way (that I know of) to figure that out is to run anchor-text tests on the page. I wouldn't change the anchor text on your old links, but you could get a new link on that same page going to a different site and see what that does for your rankings for that query. It has to be anchor text that is already on your page though. So take a two or three word phrase from your page that doesn't get many searches (and that you're maybe below the #5 spot for) and get a link from the page you're testing into the page from which you took the text with that phrase. See how your ranking changes.

This, of course, won't help you determine if your old links on that page have lost any value but, like I said, my experience has been that older links are more valuable, not less.

PS: Rand does a better job of explaining this here than I just did above.

[CPU]

Hi Brad

You should be able to look at the metrics provided by the SEO tools to see the authority of the page the link is from. If it is still a highly relevant site, with high domain authority then there would be no reason to suspect that the value would be lessened by the passing of time.

If the site or page that the link was from was devalued then this reduction of value may occur but this would be because of this rather than because time has passed.

[BradBorst]

Hi Everett,

Good information, thanks!  The reason I think they lose value is exactly what you said, they "drop off the home page" and get pushed back.

There are reasons for this quesiton other than paying for a link.  For example, guest article links where you want to know if your efforts are working.  Also, if you are asking for a link on a site, it would be nice to know that your link will count by looking at current links on the site.

[Everett]

Brad, sorry I didn't mean to imply that you were buying links. But to answer your question then, yes your links aren't going to be as strong once they drop off the home page of a blog. But that, technically, is not the same link as the one from the blog post page. Yes, you'll lose the power of the link when it's no longer on the page. It's the same as losing the link. But the link on the post page will retain its value, although that may not be much if nobody links to that blog entry.

I hope that helps. Sorry about the confusion.

Regards,

Everett

[BradBorst]

No problem Everett.  Thanks for the information.