Question How do YOU determine if a site will be a "high quality link"?

[pandaa]

Sorry if the title is a bit confusing, I couldn't quite find the words I was looking for. The question I'd like to discuss is, how do you choose the sites that you want to leave a backlink on? What makes you believe that the site won't be considered "low quality" and will actually help your search engine positioning?

 

[meta_mach]

I check the PR before anything else, it's not the best but it is something to go by. Then I check the activity of the site itself. If it has little to no activity in the comments section I usually don't post my links. I would also not use anything that shows up on link exchange sites since they normally are considered low quality.

 

[Pranav7Designer]

The better the traffic source the better points you get. So getting the inbound link from high PR site will definitely help your page to rank higher.
You can download 'SEO Analysis 1.9' addons from mozilla which displays Google Page Rank, Alexa Rank automatically as soon as any page gets open. This tool will help you in posting / creating quality backlinks easily.

 

[FPForum]

Not really that difficult. Just analyze the domain/page you'll be getting the link from. Obviously there are dozen of different tools out there to do this..But, be prepared to put in a little leg work

 

[Jessi]

Honestly, I don't put too much thought or analysis into this part. It's pretty obvious when a site is super low quality/spammy and I wouldn't want my links there. While my linkbuilding otherwise may not always be super high-quality, I think this helps balance out things to look natural overall regardless, so I'm okay with it. After all, if my links only ever showed up on the top sites, doesn't that look a little suspicious to Google, too?

 

[SimplySidy]

I look around at the content and audience (if I can get a glimpse as on forums). Then comes the Page Rank (though it doesnt always matter to me)

 

[terryse]

I try to choose first the site which has related niche as mine, and the quality of content, then the Rank in Alexa.com. Of course, there are other sites in which you can check the rank of a site other than Alexa.

 

[Super Mike]

Old thread but my two cents. If a website looks and feels like somewhere you would stick around and read on a daily basis, fits your niche well and is updated on a regular basis with good content. Then its likely it would be a good acquisition.

Once you have come to the conclusion that the site could be a good fit for your needs you can extend that to research further, using tools such as SEMRush, Ahrefs, Majestic, Moz OSE. My Personal favourite "guidance metrics" are Moz DA ( Domain authority ) combined with Majestic's Trust-flow, using SEMRush to get an insight into the type of traffic using the site.

Realistically though, a good quality link is something that is relevant and has human value, Authority and trust is a bonus. Diversity is still a key indicator and therefore a diverse profile is a good mixture of high, medium and lower authority backlinks including, providing they are relevant and add value you have nothing to worry about.

Couple of things I generally look to avoid when doing outreach :

1. Make sure the site you are trying to gain a link from is NOT an obvious guest post farm.
   
2. If it looks spammy, It generally will be.
3. If the site is irrelevant to your topic/website, walk away.
   
4. Doesnt add any value to visitors of the site
   
5. Overtly Obvious link selling

Mike