Hello people, I know to help get me prominent on google I need a lot of incoming links, does the quality of the incoming links have a great effect? I mean as long as the subject is around the same sort of thing it must help? Or could it have a negative effect? Does it matter how many outgoing links I have? Is it better to have sites linking to me but not so many links going out of my site? For those of you with sites (the vast majority i should imagine) roughly how many links do you have incoming? (There was a way to check this on google but for the life of me i cant remember now).
Also... to add, i have heard people recommend not taking part in link exchanges, is this correct advice?
The best inbound links are from high authority (high PR), on topic pages with few outbound links. Don't bother with reciprocal links or link exchange programs, they make you're site look spammy and won't help you much & the outbound links could actually harm you. Don't pay for links, Google actively search for paid links and ban sites using these methods. Build links from reputable seo friendly directories, articles, blogs (blog posts, not blog comments) etc. Yes your outbound link counts matter. More outbound links = less PR retained for your pages. Plus if you link to a bad site or neighbourhood then it could get your site banned. Link counts will vary dramatically per keyphrase and industry so it's pointless asking people how many IBLs they have. A very low competition phrase could be page one with no IBLs, just the page text .... a high competition phrase count require thousands of targeted BLs
yes, it is correct advice. you can read my blogpost here: http://blogs.digitalpoint.com/entry.php?b=54
Google does not like link exchanges. An exception if the sites are both reputable and has the same niche. Anyway its always the best to have a one way link high pr and do follow.