Getting an  incoming link from an external site with a PR lower than
the PR of my own page- does it :
a)Tend to lower my PR
b)no effect
c)Tends to increase my PR
I have read that one should go after sites with PR more than ones own.
However an incoming link from lower PR is still an incoming link, so
is there a benefit (however small) or is it harmful to ones own PR.If
one cannot find many sites with higher PR willing to link back , is it
worth trying to make up in quantity with incoming links from many
sites with same or lower PR ?

Thanks,Slogging

Hi Slogging,

It's a tough question to answer with any certainty, because no-one
apart from Google Search Engineers knows (and we at Google Answers
have no contact or relationship with them).

In my experience, from following discussions at forums like
WebmasterWorld, I believe:

Any link is of benefit. If the link comes from a link farm etc, then
it will dealt with in other ways. It is just commonsense that Google
would count the total number of incoming links, and use it to some
degree.

Incoming links from pages with a PR of 4 or more count the most. This
assumption is based on how Google only shows these when you do a
search for backward links.

PageRank numbers are not a simple 1-10 scale - it is just an easy way
to represent the true numbers. PageRank is not linear, but more akin
to the Richter Scale for earthquakes. The true numbers are more likely
to resemble:

PR1 = 10
PR2 = 50
PR3 = 200
PR4 = 1000
PR5 = 3000
PR6 = 10000
PR7 = 50000
PR8 = 500000
PR9 = 3000000
PR10 = 10000000

I just made those up, some people have tried to work out the precise
numbers ( see http://pr.efactory.de/e-pagerank-implementation.shtml
for one example), but the important point is that if you look at the
numbers in that manner, and take each PR as representing the number of
votes a page can give another page, then it's not 5 PR1 links = 1 PR5
link, but more likely 100 or 300 or 1000.

All those little PR links will count, but not much. That is why the
single most important place to be linked from is the Open Directory. A
listing is free, easy, echoes all over the web, and usually guarantees
you a PR of 4+.

Here are some articles on the nuts and bolts of PageRank:

Google's PageRank and how to make the most of it
http://webworkshop.net/pagerank.html

PageRank Uncovered
http://www.supportforums.org/pagerank/

Google PageRank
http://pr.efactory.de/

My personal linking strategy is this:

1) Never turn down a link, or the opportunity to receive one, unless
it is dodgy. Dodgy links include link farms, FFA search engines and
guestbooks - basically any link that is created without the personal
intervention of a webmaster.

2) Make sites with high PR your priority. A good technique for finding
sites that might link to yours is to use the Google Directory. Most
sites listed there already have a good PR, and they are ranked in PR
order. There is a never-ending supply of sites that might link to
yours, so always start by asking the ones that will earn you the most
PR, those with the highest PR themselves.

3) Get listed in directories with human editors. Regarding your
question on Looksmart:  many webmasters avoid them because they can't
be trusted. I am one of them. Zeal is okay, but I'm not going to pay
them 15 cents per click-through to be listed in the main directory.

4) Don't tell too many people this, but if you use Google Directory,
you will often see sites with no PR at the bottom of a category. Half
of these are dead. Use AlltheWeb to see who is still linking to these
dead sites. Webmasters are often grateful to learn that a link on
their site no longer works, and it makes things very easy for them if
you can suggest a suitable replacement (your site).

To answer your question... if the link is genuine, then c) it tends to
increase your PR, but not necessarily by much.


Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga