Verifying Links with a Bot

schmeetz · #1 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 12:31 PM

I hired a link builder. He sent me a report with a list of websites linking to mine.

They are href links and appear ok but i'm not sure if the bots/spiders can follow.

How can i be sure they're spiderable?

Can he be preventing the bots/spiders by using a class?

**incrediblehelp** · #2 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 06:22 PM

Can you post an example?

schmeetz · #3 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 07:07 PM

http://www.primelimo.com/herbal_medicine_first.html

My link is under the Herbal Medicine area.

Everything under 'Herbal Medicine' has class="xlink".

Everything under 'Our Parters' area does not so it's a little fishy.

My link has been there for about 3 weeks but it's not showing in my backlinks.

Any ideas how to test if my link can be followed by a spider?

**incrediblehelp** · #4 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 07:26 PM

A link from a massive link page like this wont benefit you much. Especially coming from a website that isn't relevant to what your website offers. You need links from relevant website to what your website is about.

Think of it this way. If I sell vitamin B online from my Health website then it would be good to get links from other health related websites. Maybe websites that write reviews about my website and then provide a link within the review. Getting a link from a Automotive website wont help me that much. It wont hurt my website, but it definitely is not as helpful as the other links mentioned before.

schmeetz · #5 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 07:32 PM

I'm quite familiar with the importance of relevancy. I appreciate the reply though.

I fully agree btw. Relevancy is key.

My question is how do i confirm whether my link can be followed or not. Can someone play with it using a class? Is there a tool out there that can confirm a links spiderability? lol

**incrediblehelp** · #6 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 07:37 PM

You can never confirm that a link has or will be spidered by a specific robot unless you have access to that websites logs, so a tool wouldn't be effective here. You can try an crawl it with your own spider, but what's the differencet when you are only interested in seeing if one of the SE bots have followed it? Have you asked the website owner for confirmation of the crawling?

Just go to view the source of the page and see if the href link is viewable there without the nofollow attribute and you should be getting crawled, but asking the website owner for confirmation is possible to.

schmeetz · #7 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 07:42 PM

The link is <a href="http://www.website.com" class="xlink">

Can classes be used to manipulate the spiders ability to follow?

Asking the site owner not an option.

**incrediblehelp** · #8 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 07:52 PM

It doesnt appear to do anything on my side, but I would ask him what the class meant to be sure.

schmeetz · #9 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 07:59 PM

thanks for the help incrediblehelp, it's very much appreciated!

joer80 · #10 (**permalink**) 10-03-2006, 07:17 AM

I dont think a class can have no follow attributes.

pnelson · #11 (**permalink**) 10-03-2006, 10:40 AM

css class cannot contain the "nofollow" tag.

You just want to make sure you are checking the backlinks regularly as well- they may be removed/resold!

I tend to use www.backlinkwatch.com, but there are many others