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A lot of web publishers believe that the best way to gain a high
PageRank, or PR, is to entice highly ranked sites to link to them. The
theory is that if a high ranking site links to you, it shares its
PageRank. This sounds great on the surface, but there more to it than
that.
In reality, Google's algorithm for arriving at PageRank dictates that
the amount of ranking a page can pass along to those it links to is its
own rank for the page in question divided by the number of outbound
links on that page.
This, in a nutshell, means that if you managed to get a site with a PR
of 8 to link to you, you won't get a ranking of 8 or even close to it.
For example, if this site already has 3 outgoing links and you make 4,
the PR passed to each site would be 2 units, rather than 8. On top of
this, the high PageRank is very likely on the site's home page,
not its internal links page, where your link would appear. The PR
that's passed on depends only on the PR of the page where the link
appears.
Since a lot of higher PageRank sites also happen to have a lot of
outbound links, the truth of the matter is these are not always the
best places to turn for reciprocation.
There is a better path to take. The strategy here involves going for
sites that have more modest PageRank numbers. Look for those that are
relatively new, but show signs of getting better over time. If these
sites have good content and seem to be reputable, they can be very good
PR generators. Going after lower PageRank sites might not seem wise,
but it really can be a good long term strategy.
A host of reasons exist as to why these lower PR sites can pay off. The
biggest lies in the fact it is generally much easier to get these sites
to put up links. Plus, when they do, they are often willing to use
keywords in the links themselves. Also, there are more inclined to put
links on their front page. Another advantage to these sites that they
probably don't already have a bunch of outbound links. The appeal of
these reasons is strong, but the most compelling is the potential these
sites offer. If high quality sites are chosen, they can grow in PR
ranking and your site can grow along with them.
It is wise to research sites to target for reciprocal links though. Stay clear of sites that have PageRank bars in the white or gray. This indicates they have little or no ranking. It
could also mean they've been banned. Gray sites in particular can be
bad news.
Should you still be on the fence about this strategy, look at the numbers. If an incoming link comes
from a page with a ranking of 8 and only has one other link, you'll get
a PR boost of 4. A page with a ranking of 6 with a total of 30 links,
yours included, will give you .2. The math clearly indicates that the
lower PageRank strategy is best.
About the Author
About the author: Jeff Alderson develops PPC and SEO software He is an expert on boosting traffic and sales. Jeff suggests building a profitable keyword list using his Ad Word Analyzer software to increase website revenue.Click here to get your own unique version of this article.
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