Where Do Your Back Links Lead? - Avoiding Any Impropriety

I’ve talked a lot about link farms here and there. Is there a limit to how many links are safe on a single page? Well, for page rank and similar purposes, the lower the better. But the rule of thumb is not to have a link on a page with 50 or more outbound links. Any higher than that and the search engines are liable to assume it’s a link farm.

By the same token, you should stay away from any link pages that use terms like “link partners” or “links” on the page. If the URL has the word “link” or “links” in it, run away. Remember, if you’re trying to build your back links, they need to look natural to help you in the SERPs. Having a link on a site or page that’s totally devoted to links doesn’t look natural to the search engines, it looks like you’re trying to game the system. What does look natural is having a link on a page that features relevant content; then it looks like your site is being pointed to as a resource.

I’d like to make one final note about things you should avoid when building back links. I hesitate to say this, because everyone has to start somewhere, but it’s not worth your time to get a link from a page that has no page rank. If there are going to be other outbound links to other web sites on the same page as your link, that site must have a page rank of at least one below yours to have any value to you. On the other hand, if there aren’t going to be any other outbound links to other web sites on the page, a site with a PR of at least two will afford you some benefit in the SERPs and to your own PR.

Link building can be pretty challenging, but you can’t let links to your site appear just anywhere. If you are careful and don’t engage in the wrong kinds of practices, you can avoid getting penalized by the search engines. Then you will be making sure that every link you get really does count.