FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
If you have any questions about our service, it's recommended you first check our FAQ. Our FAQ contains a listing of
the most commonly asked questions we've received from client and potential clients. If you do not find the answer to
your question here, please contact our customer support center for assistance.
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- Can any website join Quality Links Direct?
- Which websites will be linking to me?
- What is the difference between reciprocal and one way links?
- What is PageRank (PR) and is it important?
- What are the PageRanks of the websites that will be linking to me?
- Will joining Quality Links Direct increase my PageRank?
- Will joining Quality Links Direct increase my Search Engine Result Placements (SERPs)?
- I understand link relevancy is important, how do you address this?
- Why does Quality Links Direct place links within the body of articles?
- Do I need to provide my own article?
- Does Quality Links Direct charge a premium for their proefessionally written articles?
- How do you maintain link integritry with partners?
- Will the number of links pointing to my site fluctuate, or will they be static?
- How much does it cost to join Quality Links Direct?
- Will Quality Links Direct increase my monthly fee when more one-way links are added?
- Can I cancel my account at any time?
- I've joined QLD. When can I expect to see results?
- How long do these links remain active?
- How can I check my link counts and verify the links?
- I've found similiar link services. What makes Quality Links Direct better?
- Why does Quality Links Direct offer fewer links than the competition?
- If I find another service that offers what you do for less, will you price-match?
- Do you have a referral or affiliate program?
- What payment methods do you accept?
- How often will I be billed?
- Do you offer a discount if I register more than one website for a paid subscription?
- This service sounds great, how do I signup?
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Can any website join Quality Links Direct?
We have some strict guidelines on our approval process. Our goal is to network quality sites that offer something valuable to users. We understand value comes in many forms and can be subjective, so we've designed a checklist for our reviewers to follow that ensures all websites are judged on their own merit. We review each website on content, design, usability, and value (to name a few). Websites we will absolutely NOT allow in our directory include:
- Websites that contain pornographic imagery in any form
- Websites that promote hatred or racism
- Websites without content
- Websites that are constituted as banner or link farms
- Websites that are non-functional
- Websites that utilize Black Hat Marketing techniques for SEO
- Websites that contain warez or other illegal downloads
If you have any questions on our reviewing process, please feel free to contact us and we'll be happy to answer any question you may have.
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Which websites will be linking to me?
Visit our partner directory for a complete listing of websites that will be linking to your site. Feel free to browse the various categories and learn more about the companies so you can be assured that we only partner with QUALITY websites that have something to offer to their customers. When browsing the partner list, keep in mind that Quality Links Direct officially became a public website on August 1st, 2007. The number of partners will increase over time.
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What is the difference between reciprocal and one way links?
Reciprocal linking is when your website links to another website and that website links back to your website. Essentially,
you add a link to your site in exchange for a link from another site. A One-way link is where a website links directly to
your website and you do not link back to that particular site. One-way linking is weighted heavier over reciprocal linking
in the major search engines. Our service provides
Bronze members with reciprocal links and
Silver and Gold members with one-way links.
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What is PageRank (PR) and is it important?
PageRank is a method (an algorithm) used for measuring a web page's relative importance. The higher a website's Page Rank, the higher the emphasis of importance is placed on it by Google. Higher PageRank often results in a greater number of spider crawls.
Google defines Page Rank as:
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."
What this means is that PageRank acts as a balloting system. Hyperlinks that point to your website from another website are casting a "vote" of support for your site. The more hyperlinks pointing to your website, the more "votes" of support you have, the higher your site will be placed in the search engine results.
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What are the PageRanks of the websites that will be linking to me?
We do not put a restriction on partners based on PageRank. A site with a PageRank of 0 today may have a PageRank of 3 or higher
tomorrow. Keep in mind that when a site with a low PR value joins our network, Google’s PR algorithm will recognize the increased
number of links (acquired through QLD) and will increase the PR rating of that site, usually two or three places within
one update. You will find sites ranging from PR0 to PR5 and higher listed in our
partner directory. All of these sites will be linking to your own.
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Will joining Quality Links Direct increase my PageRank?
The majority of partners that join our linking service enjoy a nice increase in PageRank (PR). The level of PR that your site increases is very much dependant on what your PR ranking is when you join our network. For example, if your site is a PR0 you can expect to gain at least a couple of PR rankings on the next Google PR update (approximately every 100 days). If you're site is a PR6 or higher, it may take several months or even years before your PR increases. Understand that PR and Search Engine Results are NOT directly related. A site with a PR0 can rank above a site with a PR5 under the same keyword phrase.
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Will joining Quality Links Direct increase my Search Engine Result Placements (SERPs)?
Absolutely! The greatest determining factor in Search Engine Result Placements (SERPs) is the number of links you have pointing to your site. The greater the number of links, the higher you will place. Of course SEO has many facets and links are just one piece of the SEO puzzle, but they are a major piece. Quality Links Direct provides you with the links you need to increase your SERPs.
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I understand link relevancy is important, how do you address this?
When you join our network, you choose a category that best matches the content of your website. Your website link is placed within this category in our directory. You can also provide a full-text article or have one of our experts write one for you. Your anchor text (the keyword that acts as the link to your website) will be contained in the article body for the category you've selected. This way your link comes from a relevant page and is surrounded by rich content that will maximize the weighting and efficiency of your link.
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Why does Quality Links Direct place links within the body of articles?
All links are placed within the body of articles to maximize their weighting and value by the search engine algorithms.
It's no secret that the two most important aspects of SEO are CONTENT and LINKS. The search engine spiders love content
and will put the highest weighting value on links that are contained within the body of relevant and meaningful content!
As an added benefit for Bronze members, when you join our network you'll enjoy the benefit of having unique,
professionally written and SEO optimized content added to your site. Not only do these create additional entry points into your site,
they also give your site more value as your page count increases. The greater the number of pages with quality content,
the better search engine spiders will rank you.
Our goal isn't to "trick" search engine spiders with the gimmicks that some of our competitors employ when
providing links. We do not stuff our pages with RSS feed headlines nor do we populate pages with dozens of links
without any content. We are serious about the craft of link building and our goal is to provide QUALITY links to
your website along with QUALITY content and SEO optimized articles.
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Do I need to provide my own article?
No, you do not need to provide your own article. The expert writing staff at Quality Links Direct will provide an article for you based on the keywords of your choosing. This way you'll be assured of original content for your website that has been optimized for the major search engines. If you already have an article you would like to provide, you are more than welcome to submit it when you sign up for your account.
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Does Quality Links Direct charge a premium for their professionally written articles?
No, we do not charge a premium or added fee if you choose to have us furnish you with an article. Please note that the
length of the article will vary depending on the link plan you select. Please see our
Link Plans page for more details.
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How do you maintain link integrity with partners?
Everything is controller 100% on our end. When a Bronze link partner joins the QLD network, they place a small script on a
new page in their site. We have automated robots and crawlers that check for the existence of this file and code structure
on a weekly basis. If a member has removed or altered the code in any way, their link is immediately removed from the network,
they lose all backlinks, and they are banned from future participation with QLD. Our goal is quality and we simply will
not tolerate users trying to exploit or abuse our system.
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Will the number of links pointing to my site fluctuate, or will they be static?
The number of links pointing to your site will fluctuate month over month. As our network grows, more and more webmasters will join the service resulting in a greater number of one-way and reciprocal links for all partners. As each month passes you can expect more quality links pointing to your website.
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How much does it cost to join Quality Links Direct?
The cost varies depending on current promotions and webmaster needs. Please see our
Link Plans page for the price of each individual link plan.
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Will Quality Links Direct increase my monthly fee when more one-way links are added?
Absolutely not! We will NEVER increase your monthly premiums once you've locked in your rates, even when new links are
added. Whether it be 100, 1000, or 100000 new links in our system you will still pay the same low monthly rate that
your agreed upon on the day you signed up. *
* Note: Take advantage of this while you can! Right now the monthly premiums are low and WILL increase over time.
If you sign-up now you'll lock in a low rate and guarantee you'll never pay more.
For example, if you sign up for the
Silver link plan today you pay only
$8.95 per month.
You will be GUARANTEED never to pay more for the LIFE of your account!
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Can I cancel my account at any time?
Yes. You are never under any obligation and you may cancel your account at any time. If you are a Bronze member,
simply remove our code from your website and our software will automatically remove you from our network. Silver
Gold and Platinum members may cancel their accounts through
PayPal.
Please note that when you cancel your account
you will lose ALL backlinks gained from our network.
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I've joined QLD. When can I expect to see results?
It depends on the metrics that you're using for result tracking, although you should not expect results for at least several weeks. Be wary of any service or application that hints at instant gains in search engine ranking or PageRank. The search engines need time to crawl and re-cache all the website partners and count their links to your website, typically a 30 day or longer period. If you are looking to measure your increase in PageRank, you'll need to be more patient. PageRank updates occur approximately every 100 days. Even when a PageRank update occurs you are not guaranteed to see an increase as links are only one factor in the algorithm. Please be aware that PageRank does NOT have any relation to Search Engine Results Placements (SERPs).
If you're starting at a site with PR0 then you will most likely see a healthy increase on the next PR update.
If you're on a PR5 or higher, achieving the next level of increase is going to take more time and effort.
If you're looking to measure your link increase after signing up for our service, it's suggested that you use
the Link Popularity tool from your administration account the day you sign up. View the results and write down
the number of links pointing to you and keep it. Check back again the next month and each
month after that, writing down the number of links each month. You'll be very pleasantly surprised with the results!
They key to success is establish your
link campaigns early, increase website exposure each month, and keep up on your SEO! Our service is designed
to help you with all of that at a fraction of the cost of our competition.
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How long do the links remain active?
Indefinitely. As long as you remain a member of the QLD network, all links will remain active for the lifetime of your membership. *
* Note: Some links may fluctuate due to the nature of linking partnerships.
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How can I check my link counts and verify the links?
Links can be verified through all the major search engines, with varying results. It's important to understand that it takes time for links to be counted and added to the search engines. For example, MSN and Yahoo may pick up most link counts within 15-30 days of sign-up where Google may take as many as several months.
Checking link counts from the major search engines is pretty much the same:
- Browse the to search engine
- In the search text box enter: link://www.sitename.com (where "sitename" is your site name)
- The results will show all pages that link to you and have been indexed (cached) by the search engine
Additionally, you may check your link count from your QLD administration panel (registered users only). Simply browse
to the SEO Tools page and select the Link Popularity tool.
A few important notes. Google only shows a VERY SMALL AND RANDOM sample of the links, sometimes less than 5% of the total link count. MSN and Yahoo are more accurate in displaying the true number of links and are thus recommended when checking your link counts.
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I've found similar link services. What makes Quality Links Direct better?
First off, are you sure our competitor offers the SAME quality service that Quality Links Direct does? On the surface,
some linking websites appear to offer a similar service, but in reality their services are based on gimmicks that are
prone to search engine detection and possible penalization.
Comparing linking services can be difficult as each one
offers a similar concept, yet completely different execution. The key to the level of effectiveness of the services is the technology and implementation
that occurs behind the scenes. It's not WHAT link services provide, it's HOW they provide it.
Where other services merely provide links, we provide fully SEO optimized professionally written articles! Your link
will be surrounded by QUALITY content, specifically written for your website. Unlike some of our competition, you
won't find links without quality content surrounding it. Our goal is to give both the users and the search engines
what they want, highly relevant and useful content. We also employee multiple levels of quality control to ensure your
website won't be linked to or from partners that do not meet our criteria for a higher standard of excellence.
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Why does Quality Links Direct offer fewer links than the competition?
Do NOT be fooled by numbers alone. There is more to increasing your search engine placement than the number of links pointing to your website. The QUALITY of links is the most important factor in determining link weight. Many competitors boast high link numbers at the sacrifice of quality. Before signing up for ANY link service, check their catalog of sites to see who will be linking to you and who you will be linking back to (in the case of reciprocal links). You may be unpleasantly surprised to find that the competition has a thin directory of websites with poor quality, questionable content, and links that are not even counted by the search engines. You'll benefit more from a smaller number of high quality links than you will from hundreds of low quality links.
In a recent survey of competition, we found one site that had pornographic links listed in the SAME category as religious and spirituality links... on a reciprocal link program! There is something to be said of quality vs quantity and we focus entirely on quality.
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If I find another service that offers what you do for less, will you price-match?
Link services are very difficult to compare since they come in a large variety of implementations. However, QLD will price match if you can find another link service that offers the same quality service we do at a lower price.
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Do you have a referral or affiliate program?
At the moment we do not offer a referral or affiliate program. We are, however, hard at work developing a referral
rewards program where you can earn free link services, bonus commissions, and more!
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What payment methods do you accept?
At this time we can only accept PayPal. Please visit the PayPal website if you do not already have an account. PayPal has been an established and trusted leader of internet payments for years and is the preferred form of payment for websites such as EBay.
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How often will I be billed?
You will be billed once a month from the day that you sign up for an account. For example, if you sign-up on the 12th of the month you're monthly billing period will be the 12th of each of the following months.
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Do you offer a discount if I register more than one website for a paid subscription?
Yes, we offer a generous 20% discount for any website you signup in addition to your first website. *
* Discount is applied only to websites after the first website. For example, if you signup for 10 link plans you
will receive a 20% discount on the 9 websites following the first website.
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This service sounds great, how do I signup?
Please visit our signup page to select a link plan and get started with Quality Links Direct now!
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