3. Is the page linking to you indexed in Google and is the
cache version fresh?
4. Why is this essential? Google has a cached page of any
indexed page on their index. So basically, this should be
your starting point for any link partnership decision. You
need to verify that the page the link partner is proposing
for exchange, is actually indexed and that the cached
version is of the page is fresh in their records, within 20
days old as a benchmark. This will show that the page in
question gets crawled often. PageRank of the page is
secondary, and comes normally afterwards in comparison
to this primary check.
5. Is the page linking to you on topic? Is this a themed link?
6. There is a big difference between the types of links you
can get. These type of link are very targeted and carry a lot
more weight over generic or unrelated links. This is part of
what explains why some sites with much less links that
their direct competitors are able to outrank them for
particular terms. Quality links from themed sources is the
short answer. Focusing on just "popularity" and
inadvertently ignoring "reputation" is a mistake a lot of
online marketers make. Keep this in mind.
7. Is the Title tag of the page linking to you on-topic? What
about the text?
8. The title tag of the page linking to you is of great
importance. When that is combined with text that is on
topic with the page which is being link from, and other
factors, the link value is increased greatly for the link. So
as you can understand from this, is all about the co-
relation of these factors that makes one link better than
another.
9. Where is your link on the page located? Navigation, gutter,
footer, body?
10.
11. How many other links are on the page? Home Page vs.
Link Page PR gap?
