This was a presenattion based based on two surveys one to SEO and one to clients to find out opions on links

1. Link Value vs. Cost vs. Client Expectations

2. Link Value Page relevance Domain Authority (no. of links) Class C IP address Penalised page Age of the page Page H1 and title location of link on the page Domain Mozrank Age of domain Domain PR anchor variations anchor text percentages 1 way Country IP address Relevance of other links on page Branded Links surrounding text (relevance) Page type Reciprocation reciprocal Non relevant domain Content freshness Amount of links on a page 3 way deep link to domain ratio JavaScript link Language Age of link Quality of outbound links PageRank of page redirect link URL of page Page Authority (External links) Link velocity Anchor text PageRank of Domain Domain Relevance Amount of non linking pages ratio TLD No. of outbound links image link Relevancy of text text link Page Authority (Internal links) No index page Sites ranking in its own right Page not cached location of link in source code Domain site wide v' single links (Ratio) No follow page Paid Link triggers

4. CTO for Domain Invest (US)

5. Owner SEO Mad LTD£891 £20? For a relevant in context link

6. SEO’s View on Clients

7. SEO’s View on getting Paid

8. And your Point is…

9. Thanks Everyone  127 SEOs v’s 25 Clients 65% Agency v’s 73% >10 Staff 21% Clients Side v’s 21% 10-50 Staff 10% Freelancer v’s 6% 51-150 Staff

10. So what makes a Good link? I usually look at a combination of factors and often go with gut instinct based on a combination of stats rather than looking at only one thing. @Koozai_Anna A text link – 73% said Extremely or Highly Important An old domain – 71% said medium to high importance Age of Page – Split review 51% said No use to low value 46% said Medium to High Domain Authority – 84%Said Extremely or Highly Important Page Authority – 73%Said Extremely or Highly Important PageRank – 34% of SEO’s believe this is no or low value, 25% believe the opposite. Again, with few exceptions I would take just about any link, but given the choice I would look at Domain authority as the single most important factor. PR is low importance to me unless I'm trying to spot a problem or penalty in which case I would rank it high. @samuelcrocker

11. What about Relevancy? 60% of SEO’s said A good PageRank is less important than relevant text. 62% of SEO’s said A good Mozrank is less important than relevant text. 58% of SEO’s said A good domain age is less important than relevant text. 61% of SEO’s said A good Page Authority is more important than relevant text.

12. Link Location In content Surrounding relevant text – 95% High or extreme value In content surrounding non relevant text – 61% High or medium value Navigation link (External site) - 59% High or medium value Footer links are shit. Having said that, Ive got networks of hundreds of millions of them, and they work in extreme volume situations. My talks at Mozcon, SearchMarketingDay and Distilled Linklove covered that. @seoforums.org Sidebar link – 94% said no use, low or medium value Footer link – 97% Said no use, low or medium value

13. Site wide links? Again...dependent on the anchor text being used. You will be able to get away with a much higher ratio of sitewide links that use a brand anchor than you would with a keyword.... @PG_Martin 84% said that 50 links or over per domain was detrimental. it completely depends on the sector and how the competitors stack up. @GavinSmithLeeds

14. Page Factors 62% said that a link from a 2 year old page was of high level importance. 61% said that a relevant URL was high priority. Depends if new pages is relevant etc and weight of links. Better to have a new link from new page on an authoritative site than an old link from an old page that is irrelevant. @davidjmain Depending on vertical and profile of that industry (All links are good links) @JasonD

15. Domain Factors 75% said that related country IP was also medium to high importance 75% said that a related ccTLD was of medium to high importance. 57% said that more than 200 links from the same class C IP were no use. 60% said they would accept 20 links from the same IP but would consider it low value.

16. as part of natural link profile the likes of Google, Yahoo and bing are going to see all types of links. I don't think it does any harm to have links from non traditional resources as no one site is going to have perfect 100% do-follow links @davidtutin Other Factors 67% said that a they are ok or it doesn’t matter having a no follow link. I'd rather have links, even if they don't pass juice. People will be more likely to find your site if you're linked to, and in turn you'll probably get more links through exposure @tomsmith1984 60% said a link from a penalised page was a definite No No! 24% said a link from an uncachced page was ok

17. So A good Link is! A text link An old domain Good Domain Authority Good Page Authority In content with surrounding relevant text A relevant URLRelated ccTLDRelated country IP On a single IP per Class CShould be a Followed link

18. And your Point is…

19. READ BETWEEN THE LINES

20. Only 11%* of SEO’s were unhappy with the following: Sidebar (3.3%) or footer links (11%) Site wide ratio of over 1:250 links per domains (11%) Non relevant URL (10%) Non relevant text (6%) Focus on PR (8%) Non Related ccTLD (6%) Non related Country IP (6%) More than 5 links from the same IP (9.5%) More than 10 links from the same class C (11%)

21. So if you believe that shitty links are bad? YOUR IN THE MINORITY

22. But What do clients think?

23. Main Objectives from SEO

24. So what makes a good link for Clients?

25. Link Factors 60% said voted a 1 way link their top priority /40% voted it reciprocal link. 80% said it was important to be in the same language /20% said unsure 75% said a relevant URL was important 63% said an old page was not important or they were unsure 25% the linking page having backlinks to it was not important Isnt this determined on length time websites take to load? @ClientX2 Wouldn't look natural to only link to the home page and specific pages can be more relevant to the users search @clientX1

26. Relevancy and Location

27. Domain& Page Link Factors 55% said a related ccTLD was important – 25% said it wasn’t. 12% said less than 5 links from the same IP was important – 38% Didn’t know Don't know what this is @clientX3 25% said a link from a no follow page was important – 50% didn’t know / 12% said it was detrimental.

28. So a client thinks about the following? The anchor text The domain being relevant The Page name being relevant The PageRank It should be the same language It should be in content within relevant text

29. And your Point is…

30. The Customer is always Right!

31. NO!

32. Clients are not SEO Experts!As specialists it is our job to educate them!And show them the value associated to links!

33. So how can you put a cost to a link?

34. How much is a PR5 Charity link worth to you each month?

35. Bridging the Gap

36. Explain why? & Strategy?

37. Branded Profile

38. Link Profile

40. Explain why you have chosen certain methods of gaining links.

41. Explain your strategy

42. Manage Expectations

43. Don’t worry about gaining shit links

45. Thank You Twitter/theukseo www.seomad.com www.justsearch.co.uk www.getupdated.com www.seohosting.co.uk