Since Google did its game-changing Penguin Update last month, it seems like everyone is talking about links and backlinks. Now, more than ever, it's very crucial that you have the right linking structure in place - both with internal links on your site and with external links pointing back to your site.
The key word here is "natural" - no pun intended.
All your links must appear natural to Google if you want to rank for your targeted keywords. Any links which suggest you're trying to "game" or "manipulate" the system will send up red flags and may get you penalized by Google.
SEO experts are already pointing out some obvious linking mistakes like using the same keyword phrase in all your links, getting site-wide links from one source, using spammy blog networks and blogroll links, over-optimizing your site with keywords, linking to bad neighborhoods... and the list goes on.
Links have become very important to the success of your online site or business - so you must have a simple way of finding suitable link partners or backlinks. Obviously, you want backlinks which will help your site's rankings, not harm them.
You need a simple way to check or evaluate any potential backlinks or even the current links you have flowing back to your site. Yahoo's old Site Explorer can still be used (if you have a Bing Webmaster Tools account) but this service is now somewhat limited. We all need an alternative to the old Site Explorer...
So here are 3 simple ways to check your backlinks:
1. PageRank - I know everyone says Google PageRank is dead and not very important anymore. But if you ask anyone who has a site, if they would turn down a direct link from the homepage of a PR7 or PR8 site and you will probably discover that PageRank is alive and well.
PageRank is the ranking score (0-10) of how important Google believes any site or page is on the web. Get a link (dofollow or even nofollow) from an important site and a small amount of PR flows to your site depending on how many links are on that page.
While PageRank is not that important anymore for getting your keywords ranked, it can still give you a simple way of judging the importance of a site or page. It is still something you can use to evaluate your linking partners.
2. MozRank - This is another way to discover how important a domain or page is on the web. This ranking system is run by by SeoMoz.com. You can access this method by using the OpenSiteExplorer site, and it will give you a Page Authority and Domain Authority number for that site or page.
It will also give you other vital information about a page or site with a detailed link analysis, however full access to this ranking system is very limited unless you get the paid option. But still worth trying for a very simple assessment of any page or site. http://www.seomoz.org
3. Citation & Trust Flow - This evaluation system is run by MajesticSeo.com and gives you valuable information about a site or your backlinks. This site has created two new "flow metrics" which tell you the number of links pointing to a site, but more importantly it gives the amount of trust flowing through that site.
These days, it's all about getting a vote of trust from a related high ranking site, to increase your rankings. These two metrics will help you find good linking partners. What I really like, they put all this information in a graph - so you can quickly see how important a site is on the web.
One major drawback, in order to get this information, you have to sign up for a free account but I found it worth it. There is also a paid option but I haven't tried this yet. Regardless, I am finding this ranking system very helpful for finding backlinks. http://www.majesticseo.com
There you have it, 3 simple ways to better choose your linking partners or to check your current backlinks. Of course, I have always recommended you also use the free SEOQuake toolbar, which you can place on your browser. As you surf a site, you can quickly see the PageRank, Alexa numbers, Age of site... and so on.
Used in combination with the other evaluation methods mentioned above, it will give you a great way to check and evaluate your backlinks and linking partners.
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