Lets say someone has a website which content is related to mine with about 1,000 pages. The frontpage has a PR3, and out of all the remaining pages only around 10 pages are PR1 and all the remaining pages are PR0. Suppose that since I helped him he agree to put a free backlink on his site pointing to my frontpage. Would it be better (from Google point of view) to ask for a frontpage only backlink or a sitewide only backlink? I can't ask him to link only from his PR1+ pages for obvious reasons... Please note that the backlink would have to be in his footer surrounded with about 15 other external links and that no traffic at all would come from it.
Sitewide links don't look natural. Footer links don't look natural. For SEO, you would want an in-content link on the home page. For traffic, go with the sitewide.
Good points, I added some clarifications if my original post. So you think that if he could only offers a link in his footer with about 15 other external links beside it it would almost be better to not ask for that kind of link at all?
With millions of blogs out there, that might not be true anymore. If the site is related to his niche, the sitewide will be better IMHO. Same or better for Google, better for Yahoo and MSN. More traffic too.
A link with 15 other footer links would have very little value imo. I would take a single link inside of relative content on the front page. Google discounts sitewide links so having a link on a 1000 pages isn't going to count for more than one or two links. Google factors in where the link is located - and footer links are the most suspect of all.
But its still better to get a SiteWide footer link or do you think Google might penalize me? I understand that a single link on the frontpage in the content would be best but he won't give me that. Thanks!
Thanks, I think I'll go for sitewide. Do you think Google might penalize me since this will look as if I bought a link?
As the link receiver, you won't get a penalty - At worst, google will ignore the link. With 15 footer links, the PR it passes will be minimal even if they count it (not that PR matters much).
Personally, I never do sitewides links as it is just not natural, and google loves natural linking. I would take a single link on the home page in the footer over a sitewide.
How come 10 homepage links are more natural than 10 sitewide links? Make no sense to me No, Google won't penalize you. Otherwise anyone could buy a few links for the competition and report them to Google.
I have a similar post here: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1107968 Hope can help you. IMO,it is ok to do sitewide link,since it doesn't harm anything. And,maybe it can help PR and keywords ranking,Maybe. In google search "link:www.omarskicks.com" you will find many backlinks from the same domain "sleepdoctor.blogspot.com",pls analyze its backlinks structure.Who can come to a conclusion that sitewide backlinks don't help PR and keywords ranking? You can find more example site.
I think you should see if you can place the ad somewhere that would give you a traffic boost if you can. it doesn't sound like he's interested in doing anything that will help your pr much...