Deciding whether to place my URL on a site

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Victoria Gitelshtein: I think you should check the basics like how old is that site, domain age, if this site have trafic- how many people visit it each month, and try to understand if these people are your potential audience.
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  Michelle Korn: Victoria Gitelshtein - what free site do you use to check age & traffic?
  
  Thanks
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  Victoria Gitelshtein: https://websiteseochecker.com/domain-age-checker/
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  Victoria Gitelshtein: https://neilpatel.com/
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  Michelle Korn: Victoria Gitelshtein That doesn`t show me the traffic though, right?
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  Victoria Gitelshtein: neilpatel do show. i cannot say how exact it is.
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  Victoria Gitelshtein: https://app.neilpatel.com/en/traffic_analyzer/overview...
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  Travis Bailey: Victoria gave you a succinct list of desirable characteristics. Though I would go a little further, and see if sites related to pornography, pharma, and casinos are linked there. That`s a pretty big red flag.
  
  Just use the site`s internal search engine, and use keywords pertaining to those undesirable neighborhoods. You could start with `viagra`, `xxx`, and `casino`. Branch out a bit from there.
  
  The Penguin portion of the algorithm is a lot more tolerant than it has been in recent years. Though you`ll at least know if adding your listing to the site(s) is a waste of time.
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  Michelle Korn: Travis Bailey - how do you use the site`s internal SE?
  
  Can you give me the search query I would use in Google to find that out?
  
  Thanks
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  Travis Bailey: If the sites have an internal search engine, it would be pretty much like you would search Facebook. However, you can also use an advanced operator in Google should they lack a search feature.
  
  A good example would be site:url.com intext:keyword. A work safe way to see it in action is site:kroger.com intext:cat toys. You can also use intitle instead of intext, to see pages with the target keyword in the title tag of the documents on the site you`re vetting.
  
  More on operators here:
  https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google.../215331/...
  
  They`re just really handy to know, for all kinds of purposes. I recommend looking into search operators further.
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  Michelle Korn: Travis Bailey t/y
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  Travis Bailey: No problem. Here`s a couple more guides that can help quite a bit.
  
  https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en...… See More
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  Michael Martinez: Domain authority is a 3rd-party metric. It doesn`t provide any insight into the value of a page`s links.
  
  Don`t be so mechanical in asking for links. Set some personal standards. Do you like the page or not? If not then why bother getting a link from it?
  
  "Relevant links" are a myth. The search engines don`t look at links that way. What they look for is WHY a link is on a page. If there`s no good reason for a link to be there then it will probably be ignored.
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  Michelle Korn: Ok, but I still need to find sites that even allow links.
  
  How do I do that? Most don`t anymore.
  
  Thanks
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  Michael Martinez: Michelle Korn I wouldn`t look for sites that "allow" links, accept them, invite them, or encourage link requests. But I would avoid sites that explicitly ask people not to contact them for links.
  
  There are many good Websites out there - most overlooked by the Web marketing industry because they have been misled by link tool providers about what is a "good" link.
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  Sam Mah: Here`s what I look for in a worthy website for linking: 1/ check DA and PA on the Moz tool. The higher DA means this domain has been online for awhile. 2/ check for the page speed. If the site loads fast, it means there`s an audience.
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  Sam Mah: The older domain has baggage. Page speed is a better indicator of quality websites.