“How much is a link worth?”

Boy, do I hate trying to explain that one. Not because I don’t know the answer, but because there are so many factors in trying to get a comprehensive overview of it all. Not to mention the questions that accompany the concept throughout the entire conversation. Questions like…

How many conversions did that link drive?

How do you know that increase in links is the reason I’m making more money?

Why do I want that link if it’s most likely not going to drive any traffic?

You got me 100 links. Great. How much is each one worth?

Why is that link more valuable than this one? What’s the difference?

Ok, I’m going to do my best to explain how we try to answer the overall question of the ROI of the link. Keep in mind that this generally involves white boards, several colored markers and lots of talking with my hands to the point where the white board looks like the latest game winning play from the Super Bowl. But here it goes.

The ROI of a link (depending on your pre-assigned conversion points) can be directly measured by:

• Referrals – how many times someone followed that link into the site
• Conversions – how many times referring traffic completes a conversion

Sounds pretty simple, right? And it would be if that were the only factors to consider. But there are more and some of which are pretty intangible.

1. Rankings

Link popularity is (contrary to popular belief) built up to drive rankings. Traffic is secondary. Granted, some tactics are executed for the sake of driving traffic, but rankings will be your best indicator of the strength of your link development efforts. Keep in mind that links can take anywhere from 30 – 90 days to be recognized and indexed by the search engines, mature and then actually count toward your rankings. Watch your visibility trends (or the actual number of keywords that you are ranking for in the top 30 and top 10 search results).

Hunt for correlations and draw reasonable conclusions keeping in mind things like other optimization efforts, recent press releases or news coverage, search engine algorithm changes, and other factors that could also have affected the rankings. Narrow it down to the keywords you have been focusing on in your link development efforts as well as the specific pages you’ve been building links to to get a better feel on how your efforts are impacting the rankings.

2. Type-In Traffic

Check out your analytics and hunt for the metrics on direct traffic. Is there an increase in direct type-in traffic that is otherwise unexplained? With some well placed links in high traffic areas, the brand name can resonate with users to the point where they just type in the home page URL rather than using a search engine. If you’ve recently embarked on a link development or social media campaign, this can contribute (although most likely it can’t take all the credit) for the increase in direct traffic.

3. Branded searches

Similar to type-in traffic, checking your analytics to see if this metric has fluctuated. Again, there are several factors on this one including offline promotions, media buy, and more. So keep it realistic but hunt for those clues that tell you whether or not your efforts are working.

If none of these factors are working, it’s time to re-evaluate your tactics. When it comes to search engine optimization, the number of links isn’t nearly as important as what’s happening after those are live. Anyone can build links, but only true link builders can build an entire offsite marketing and optimization campaign where the dividends are felt long after the link appears.