7 replies to this topic

[diana]

I am pretty choosey as to who I link out to especially after everything I have learned on this forum about that.

I have a person who has emailed me twice now asking to be put on my links page. Their company would be one that I would consider adding due to the relevance of my business. I checked out their site last week and it was under construction and it hasn't even gone live yet.

I emailed back and told them that I would not add a link due to the fact that the site is under construction and I know nothing about their company. I also told them that I don't link to anything "spammy" or has popups. I asked 3 important questions about their company and also told them that they can email me again down the road once their site has been up for a while and I would reconsider.

I got another email from them telling me that the site is going live next week and that the local newspaper is running a story on them and so is some local television show. Then they ask "do you think you can look into that link now"? How bold is that! They never even answered any of my questions about their company that I had originally asked. Didn't even offer a reciprocal link either.

Here's my question. If I consider linking to them in the future, is there a way that I can keep track of who they link out to without going through each one of their links manually? I definitely don't want my site penalized because of someone I linked out to. What should I be looking for? I usually check backlinks on marketleap but is there a way to tell if their links are good or bad.

I'm not even sure I want to link to them at this point because I was really put off by them just wanting the link and not answering important questions I had asked about their company!

[sweepthelegnate]

got another email from them telling me that the site is going live next week and that the local newspaper is running a story on them and so is some local television show. Then they ask "do you think you can look into that link now"? How bold is that!

if they said that to me - I would have promptly written back that it looks like they didn't need my link they would obviously get some after the show aired.

Of course that depends how how many website owners watch the show, etc etc...the fact is they want and apparently think they need your link...you're still in the drivers seat...maybe I'm just vindictive but I wouldn't link to them until they answered my questions.

[diana]

maybe I'm just vindictive but I wouldn't link to them until they answered my questions.

I don't plan on linking to them until my questions are answered and until I see that their website isn't doing anything spammy. My questions are very specific to my industry.

Any other thoughts from anyone about how I can check to make sure they are not doing anything spammy that could penalize my site if I decide to link to them?

Thanks,
Diana

[sweepthelegnate]

well I would check out who else they are linking to and who's linking to them, if that raises any red flags you can go a little deeper, that should determine if they are linking out to any farms or something along those lines.

you can also look at the source code of some of their out going links and see if they are playing those on the up and up as well...it isn't necessarily spam if they are using redirects though.

honestly even if they are doing a bunch of spammy stuff just linking to them once is probably not going to get you penalized.

[qwerty]

If you're not going to check out everyone they're linking to (and realistically speaking, you can't do that with all your link partners) you can at least keep track of their home page's PR. If it drops suddenly and significantly, it could be an indication that they've been penalized, and at that point you should probably spend the time to check them out more carefully or just dump them if you want to play it safe. I don't want to recommend jumping to conclusions (or putting any faith in toolbar PR), but you gotta do what you gotta do.

I got an email a couple of weeks ago from an SEO firm asking if one of my sites would exchange links with one of their clients. The thing is, I had exchanged links with them, over a year ago. So I took a look and sure enough, my link was gone. These goons had removed all of the site's outbound links when they took over link building for them!

[oneofthe3lions]

There are some link checking prgrammes that will check that people are recipricating of course.. There is a programe called Xenu Link sleuth or very similar that tries to check the outbounds from certain pages too , that 'may' be worth a look but cant really vouch for it.

I wouldnt worry about who 'they' in turn link out to, I dont see that part being a problem with regards getting penalised etc If you stick to the sound principles of only link to them if it benefits your visitors and forget 'seo' to a point you should be ok.

[diana]

well I would check out who else they are linking to and who's linking to them, if that raises any red flags you can go a little deeper, that should determine if they are linking out to any farms or something along those lines.

What would be some cases of red flags? Am I looking to see if their links are all linking to each other? Like qwerty said, that could be very time consuming to keep an eye on them on an ongoing basis. Maybe qwerty is right in just viewing their PR to see if it suddenly drops one day.

They also have two other websites (that were listed in their email which are totally unrelated to the business they are now getting into) that I might check out and see if the backlinks show anything unusual.

I will do some research on the Xenu Link to see what that is all about.

Thanks everyone.

[sweepthelegnate]

Am I looking to see if their links are all linking to each other? Like qwerty said, that could be very time consuming to keep an eye on them on an ongoing basis. Maybe qwerty is right in just viewing their PR to see if it suddenly drops one day.

yeah I totally wouldn't go through that process on an ongoing basis, initially I might do it. but like you said qwerty said a casual eye would be enough in my opinion.