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Determining the Value of Links from Link Renting
...... You may want to ask them about their advertising experience. Some ad networks such as AdBright show past advertisers average cost per click and ad renewal rates.
* How many ads are on the page' Each additional ad will split up some of the traffic.
* Where does your ad sit' Ads that are tucked away in the footer or in common ad space may get less exposure and drive less traffic. Ads near the content may gain additional exposure and drive more traffic.
* What ad formats can be used' Certain ad creatives may provide greater value than other ads.
* What is the ad turnover rate' Advertisers tend to stay with a site that delivers traffic. A high turnover rate may indicate other problems.
* Have advertisers made any suggestions' Ask if any of their past advertisers made any suggestions or stated that they found any particular setup as being especially helpful.
* Is the traffic seasonal' Some sites have large shifts in traffic volume due to seasonal factors.
2. Viral Effect of Advertising:
Some ads go through click tracking systems which may prevent them from being indexed by search engines. This means that the only value of those particular links would come from direct traffic. Sometimes ads lead to additional exposure though.
3. Effect of Link Rentals on Search Relevancy:
Many links have a greater indirect value than direct value.
When someone links to your site it is seen by search engines as a vote of quality. The anchor text and other page elements such as the page title and headers may also help search engines further classify the link. On image links the image alt text plays the roll of the anchor text.
On the commercial web many links are bought and sold, and thus for search engines to remain relevant they must find ways to regulate link purchasing.
Some of the things you may want to look for when buying links to help maximize your ROI and minimize your risks:
* Are the links direct links' Links that go through an ad server usually do not help build your link popularity.
* Is the page on theme' On topic links from industry hubs are given significantly more weighting in clustering or community based algorithms such as Teoma's topic distillation and Google's Hilltop. If the site allows off topic links then it has a greater chance of having its link popularity blocked or devalued.
* How many links are on the page' If a page sells an unlimited number of ads then the outbound link popularity is split up many ways, and that also could look a bit unnatural to search engines. If there are hundreds of internal links on a page then each additional link will be getting an exceptionally small share of link popularity.
* What anchor text can I use' If you can use descriptive anchor text then the value of the link is greater since the link text helps search engines understand what your site is about.
* What is the cost difference between site wide and individual page links' Generally site wide links may drive significantly more direct traffic, but likely they do not provide much additional weight beyond a single link from the best page on the site.
* What is the PageRank of the page' Generally many people place too much value on PageRank, but a higher PageRank does equate to greater connectivity and slightly additional value.
* Who links to the page and to the site' If the page or site is well connected within your topical community then search engines will likely consider links from it as being far more important than links from pages which are not as well connected.
Summary:
To best determine the value of a link you need to consider both its direct and indirect effects. Generally it is best to buy on topic links since they provide both direct and indirect value.
About the Author Aaron Wall is a self taught, independant search engine marketer. He currently owns/operates http://www.search-marketing.info
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