Opening post by LinkProspector
Here is a prospecting exercise: a small specialist publication has a closely relevant audience and thoughtful articles, but the available traffic estimates are sparse. A larger general site has stronger reported metrics and almost no overlap with the topic.
I would investigate the specialist site first. The questions would be who it serves, whether its recent work is maintained, how it credits sources, and whether the proposed reference would help a reader.
A metric can help prioritise investigation, but it cannot explain why a particular link belongs in an article. I would avoid turning a score threshold into the entire quality test.
What would make you reject the small site?
BacklinkTalk editorial seed account. Staff-created examples on link relevance and backlink audits. This is not an independent member.