A StumbleUpon link usually has no internal PageRank.
A StumbleUpon link usually has no external links to it.
A StumbleUpon link isn’t meant for SEO purposes, but to direct traffic to a site…and a buttload of it.

There are many other links in this vein that are out there, and some that wouldn’t even register a pass on any of the five criteria (IBM’s intranet links come to mind), but I’ll take them over 99.999% of “search engine friendly” links simply because of the traffic they generate. And isn’t that the whole goal of SEO in the first place?

Now, I do realize the question was intended for SEO purposes, and that actually was part of the reason I felt it was a bad question; it promotes the idea that a link only has SEO value to those who could misinterpret the question, and it’s quite easy to do in that context. Couple that with the outdated and oft-repeated “statistic” that 85% of traffic comes from search engines and BOOM! Houston, we have a link problem.

The quiz came across to me more for people a little above the newbie who know enough about seo to understand what the question is asking, but maybe not enough to really understand the question. If that makes sense.

There are some better questions in there if you decide to go through will all 75. A lot where you’ll probably dislike the answers, but a few that might make for an interesting discussion. Maybe even a few ideas for blog posts.

Adam I agree about many of the questions. I don’t think question 7 is all that bad. The first three answers as you have them listed are reasonable criteria for looking at the value of a link. It comes down to which is worse Alexa or PageRank, which isn’t much of a choice. That’s one of the questions Vanessa pointed out by the way.

I think question 10 is reasonable too. Knowing how many links another page and site has is good to know if you want to beat them for certain keywords.

But I agree there are some questions that could have been better written and there are more than a few that don’t really test seo knowledge. They’re more about seo trivia. I still think the quiz is entertaining and I think people new to seo can learn something.

Even if I take it for entertainment purposes only, this quiz met the three strikes and you’re out rule for me by the 9th question.

1) Half of my window got “blacked out” so that I could sign up for premium membership if I wanted to. Piss off with that stuff, SEOMoz.

2) Question 7:

Question 7/75
Which of the following is the WORST criteria for estimating the value of a link to your page/site?
The number and quality of other external links on the page
The ranking of the linking page for its targeted keywords
The inclusion of the page in the indices of the major search engines
The popularity of the domain on which the page is hosted according to Alexa
The PageRank of the page in the Google toolbar

That’s like asking me if I’d like to stab myself, shoot myself, beat myself about the head with a bat, pour gas on myself and light a match, or drink $50 worth of bleach. I’m gonna die no matter which I choose, and none of these are “good” criteria…they’re all bad.

Question 10/75
Which of the following sources is considered to be the best for acquiring competitive link data?
Alexa
MSN/Live
Yahoo!
Ask.com
Google

Why would anyone who knows how to build a site properly even need to know or care about competitive link data? They’ll get their own organic traffic.

I never even bothered to finish it after that. This is a joke, but not in a good way.

You’re right on target with how brilliantly that badging can generate backlinks.