Oh happy days......

I have just achieved PR4. This was the initial goal of this website. I would like to thank everyone here for helping me to get to this level, whether by recommending links or tweaking or any other sort of help or assistance. Thanks alot. I mean that sincerely. Now that I have reached that goal, the target is now 5 (obviously). Any recommendations? I have a lot of links that are pointing at www.newcomputer.ca/index.html, should I just point those at the home page?

PS: All this PR feels like a glitch in the system. Can anyone confirm? I used the tool at webrain etc... and it said 4. But pages that were recently PR1 and PR2 have jumped to 4. I will work my tail off to stay at 4.

 

I hope you haven't really got them pointing to http://www.newcomputer.ca/index.html. You get a 404 for that URL. I think you mean http://www.newcomputer.ca/index.htm.

As to the question. This is your home page isn't it? So what do you mean "pointing at the homepage"?

My guess is that you mean pointing at http://www.newcomputer.ca/. If that is the question, then the answer is that it shouldn't matter, but for consistency of internal and external links I would drop the index.htm.

Don't you use the Google toolbar? That is the easy way to verify the PR on a page. But yes, Google is showing PR4 and 11 backlink to your page.

I'm not sure why you are so elated about all this. If you read any of the other threads in this forum about PR you will know that most of us feel that PR makes little or no contribution to the placement of a page in the SERPs.

And I don't want to rain on your parade, but PR4 is no big deal. I can show you pages with just 3 or 4 backlinks that have been PR4 for years and nobody is working their tail off to keep them there. If you have any decent backlinks at all, PR4 is almost a default ranking.

Your real goal should not be PR5. The increase in PR should simply be a byproduct of link building. The goal is to aquire enough IBL with your keywords in the anchor text to raise your page to the top 10 or 20 in Google's SERP placement. The real value of a IBL is the relevance that Google assigns to it based on the anchor text. This is what drives SERP placement, not PR.

 

Ouch Compar, You not only rained on my parade, but your flooded the whole damn field. Anyways, the links to the home page are from links entitled 'home' etc... in other pages. For some reason I did not just link to the .ca but instead went to the .ca/index.htm.

As for what people are saying about PR, when you have a goal and you achieve it, you should be happy, and I am. PR4 is and was a big deal because it meant that I have now surpassed the 'major player' in my market for not only specific keywords and search phrases, but also PR on a site that has been around for a long time and I has quite a few backlinks. I have been able to achieve this with peoples help here and very few backlinks.

I have been working very hard on the anchor text and looking into backlinks. My goal is 5. I think a lot of people use the google toolbar and when you visit a website, that is one of the first things I look at is the little green bar. IMO. Thanks again for raining on my parade

 

PR5 is a good goal, keep working for it. Sure, what really matters is the quality links it takes to acheive that PR, but as a way to measure I don't mind using PR.

However, PR4 is nothing special. Like, not at all. Again, I don't mean this to be harsh but at best its Average. I generally assume I can get any site to a PR4 with just a couple of links from okay sites. To get a PR 5, now you've accomplished something, and PR6 - even moreso - 6 is quite significant.

Anything less than PR4 you almost have to try specifically to do poorly, or you've just not had the site for very long yet.

Again, not trying to be rude - but PR4 is at best a good starting ground. 5 is now just starting to be what many would consider "pretty good" if you are a small site.

 

So having said that PR is mostly useless let me tell you my success story. I registered www.online-poker-rooms.nu on May 21, 2004. I immediately put up a temporary home page and about 60 links to it. Within the next week we designed and put up the site.

In the June 22 update the site went to PR6 and reports 64 backlinks in Google. So that is registration to PR6 in 32 days. Not bad eh?

Now I just have to wait for it to advance in the SERPs.

 

Compar, all I can say is "PLEASE LINK TO ME..... MUWAHAHAHHA" j/k, that is great. Different site links? Was it the same anchor text?

 

The majority of the links were from one of my other sites -- the InfoPool. Both site are located on the same server but they are on different IP blocks.

The same anchor text has been used for all links.

 

Bob, I'm waiting for you to determine why, with 400 BLs, PR5, and 4,000 pages I'm still sitting at #80. While the top 5 sites are all lesser in all catagories... awaiting your comment on this

 

Well Schlottke, what can I tell you. Google must just not like you.

It reminds me of the old story about the woman who went to the doctor and he declared she was pregnant. She said "that's impossible, I haven't had sex with my husband in two years", to which the doctor replied, "well this must be what we call a grudge pregnancy, somebody must have had it in for your husband".

In your case, Google must have it in for you.

On a more serious note I wish I had an answer. How new are your BLs? Are you still seeing the sandbox affect?

You may have seen me talking about the real estate site I'm working on. In this update it just went to PR6 with 82 reported backlinks. The search term is very regional and as a result should not be competitive at all. The site now ranks #4 for allinanchor. But the site is so low in the SERP I can't even find it.

When I use McDar's tool to try and find it a link from the searchguild forum comes up in 158th place and the domain itself cannot be found.

I tell the client it is just a matter of time, that we have done everything right. But it sure is a piss off.

 

A pr6 with 60 backlinks is not enough for you to show up in the serps for a good poker term.

Add another 0 and you might get a top 15 ranking.

Keep on linking.

 

Keep that up and you'll be at PR5+ in no time!