If you had a choice of 1 homepage link or 100+ sitewide links to acquire (well, OK, purchase) from a site, which would you prefer from SEO stand point? Say, the price would be comparable. Is there any significant disadvantage to sitewides if the overall theme of the site (but not necessarily every single page) is relevant? Thanks, all.
It would depend whether I had a lot of sitewides to my site already and how old it was. Too many sitewides can kill a new site.
AS mad4 said there are a few things to consider, but I personally don't like sitewide links. Always looks artificial and Google is getting better detecting and devaluing them
mad4, subzero: I agree with you guys there are lots of parameters to consider, and I also dislike sitewide links. It just looks funny that people actually (try to) charge more for sitewide links simply because there are more of them. It looks to me that a single link from a relevant page on a (sub)domain is worth same or more than sitewide links from all the pages of that (sub)domain's website. Would you agree?
I think there should be a balance of sitewide and homepage links... having tooo much of one or the other is not the best thing....
I didn't know a lot of sitewides can kill a new site, glad I read this post for when I start selling links ina few months, looks like Ill be going homepage only! Whats the usual price difference anyway for sitewide and homepage (roughly) ?
that depends on pr and traffic of the site. you could research people with similar sites and see what there price is.
Most people offer sitewide links simply because with many CMS's it's the easiest way to add them They charge more because.. well 500 links sure sounds better than one doesn't it .. but here on DP for instance, you have a link everywhere you have a siggy, and it doesn't hurt you, it does help... Just things to ponder.. ~LadyH
err.. not sure if i agree with you guys. i'd go with the sitewide. there are more of them and it would be easier for a google spider to find it. personally (and i'm not seo expert), i'd think although sitewides are not that much more valuable than single links, it's easily say sitewides are better anyday compared to single links.
I think a homepage link will always in the day because it looks as though they belong and it is a position of prominence.
Well, what we are talking about here only applies to your site when you are buying links. You are free to sell anything you want, it's just your customers should be educated on what effect a sitewide link from your site can have on their site's rankings. And I agree with others, sitewide links should be prescribed with great care or not used at all. If that was up to me, I would price sitewides a bit less than homepage only simply because homepage is a premium real estate and there is less availability there. On top of that add possible problems with sitewides, so I think they should go for a bit less.
I would prefer a homepage link if it was embedded in the homepage content over a footer sitewide link. It depends where the link is located and, as people mentioned how many sitewides you have already. You want to keep a natural looking backlink profile as the SEs are getting better at detecting unnatural backlink patterns.
If there is an option, then ofcourse homepage link, and if you get both, its sure better then alone homepage.