Can You Buy Text Links
And Get Value for Money ?

The value of any text links from a web page is determined by the PR of the page and the number of outbound links from the page.

In his article " How Low PR Web Sites Can Improve Search Engine Ranking "
Andy Theekson showed how the Link Value of a page to another website is affected by the number of outbound links.

Whilst this concept is not new, it's very relevant but frequently
overlooked when it comes to a decision to buy text links.
Never buy text links based on just Page Rank.

In other words Outbound Links = Onsite links + Offsite links.

Although you might think outbound links sounds like just offsite links to another website, you can see that it includes onsite links to internal pages on the same website. When it comes to a decision to buy text links, hopefully you'll see why this is important, later.

Earlier I said that a PR 4 can give you the same Rank Boost as a PR 7.

The reference to this comes from Are You Hung-Up on Page Rank and Back Links ?

To be more precise a PR 4 page with 17 outbound links is equivalent to a PR 7 page with 30 outbound links. The reason I chose a PR 4 and a PR 7 page for comparison is that in practice few people would believe it possible for a PR 3 or PR 2 page even though it is, and PR 8 pages are too rare.

Link Broker websites like linkrent.com or linkbliss.com through which you can buy text links will normally specify how many other text links or Ads will be on the same page.

Here are 3 typical examples of websites from which you can buy text links. I have called them Site A, B and C. These are actual sites, but I have not included the site URL's in order to respect the privacy of the sites concerned.

Buy Text Links Ad Listing for Site A:
Indexed Pages: 355
Alexa Rank: 205526
Pagerank: 6
Homepage Link: $50 monthly | (25 total available)
Sub Page Links: $10 monthly | (25 available/page)

Buy Text Links Ad Listing for Site B:
Indexed Pages: 16
Alexa Rank: 87613
Pagerank: 4
Homepage: $45 monthly | (10 total available)
Sub Page Links: $25 monthly | (10 available/page)

Buy Text Links Ad Listing for Site C:
Indexed Pages: 175
Alexa Rank: 271391
Pagerank: 3
Homepage: $50 monthly | (10 total available)
Sub Page Links: $50 monthly | (10 available/page)

An analysis of the outbound links from each site homepage using Optispider gave the following results:

               Outbound Links     Onsite Links     Offsite Links
Site A               203                       184                   19
Site B                 43                         22                   21
Site C               148                         81                   67

We must also include the total extra Ad links that each site is offering from its homepage, since this will increase the total outbound link count once all Ad spaces are taken.

Using the Link Value formula from the Andy Theekson article, the link value of a link from each of the three sites is :

              Page Rank     Outbound inc Ad Links      Link Value
Site A             6                          228                          0.0263
Site B             4                            53                          0.0755
Site C             3                          158                          0.0190

Site B with a PR of 4 represents almost 3 (2.87) times the Link Value from the PR 6 Site A and 4 times the Link Value of the PR 3 Site C.

So, Site B with a PR 4 offers 3 times the Link Value of Site A which has a PR of 6.

But what would it be worth to you to buy text links from one of these sites ?

We know to buy links can cost up to $50 /month, but are they value for money ?

This article continues in " Can You Buy Links And Get Value for Money ?"

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