Agreed. To purchase a link from a directory, the most important thing is the PR of inner pages( subcategories).
this is something I stressed from day one when i started messing with the directory niche. I got fed up of people always stating PR5 web directory...etc etc; with absolutely nothing else within the domain itself. Offer it for free, sure, i'll submit. SHow some incentive, sure i'll submit. Just go register a dropped domain and slap on a oridinary template without work, pffft, yea good luck.
Some PR 5 directories have PR 3 or higher inner pages which would be unlikely in a PR 2 directory no matter what quality.
Guess it depends on why you are linking ... Many SEO pros will argue that Page-Rank is unimportant ... the link text is what search engines are looking for in order to rank your site. We have all seen PR-0 sites outrank PR-6 sites many times. I would rather have better results than higher PR. I think it is more important that the pages appear in the indexes and are being crawled on a regular basis --- regardless of the page rank. Of course if you are trying to sell directory space ... buy some high PR links.
If the inner pages do not have pr consistently (PR5+ (main page) -> PR4+ (second level) -> PR3+ (third level)) , i just would not add my link to that directory. That is a measure of trustrank for me!
I think if a directory has a PR4+ only on the index page then there is obviously something rather fishy going on. Seeing this is usually an indication that the directory is on an old domain that used to have that PR and hence when the next PR update occurs the PR is likely to fall quite dramatically due to the complete change in site content. Obviously (as mentioned) age does have a factor. As a general rule, directories tend to get a PR on the index page, submit page and ideally top level categories. Then in the next update (or few) PR tends to be assigned to the other pages (latest links, top hits etc.) whilst lower level categories start to achieve lower PR rankings.
I think we should differentiate between free and paid directories. While free directories are receiving lots of submissions and thus their number of pages get increased. Being free directories with limited earnings, owners of those directories can not promote the innerpages as much as paid directories. Paid directories also tend to receive fewer submissions and can always put back a percentage of revenue to promote inner pagaes. So I always submit to any free directory --and never bother about the PR of the page I'll get listed. A backlink is a backlink--always increases link popularity and indexing. But in case paid directories--I am too picky. This habit always dries my PP numbers
Sounds great Casper were waiting for your submission at Biz-King as it meets your standards and or requirments. lol... sorry you said thats what you were looking for so.... what the heck figured id try. thx malcolm
Hi malcolm, I can but after next pr update because i spent enough to development of my sites nowadays! Once i start to earn from my directories ,i hope i will have enough money to spend on backlinks instead of content and development..