I have asked this question a couple of different places, and get different responses. So, I am going to ask here. Hopefully, I can get an informed answer. I know that no one knows the inside of the SEs unless they work there, but I am hoping some of the more experienced (those who have been doing this longer than I) will know from actual experience... I have the opportunity to get a link on a couple PR9 sites. Of course, it will cost me a good bit. When asking people about this, I have gotten responses ranging from "PR9 is not a big deal...get a lot of lesser PR links instead of the one PR9" to "PR9 would be awesome! It will help all the pages on your site so much", etc., etc. So, I am trying to find out the truth. How much will it really help? Of course, the help to my main page would be great, but I am very interested in the effect it will have on all my sub-pages (I have about 120...so, it's very hard to get hundreds of links to each of them). What has your experience been on this? I'm really not looking to hear guesses (I appreciate everyone's feedback, but in this situation, I am looking more for people who have actual experience with this and know first hand). Thanks.
Oh Boy! Here we go again. There are at least two questions: 1. What are you hoping to achieve with a PR9 link? a. Increase your pages, or sites, PR? b. Have your page rank higher in the SERPs? If the answer is "a." above then a link from a PR9 page will tranfer more PR value to your page than a link from a lower PR with the same number of outbound links. Assuming that the target page on your site is linked to all the other pages on your site then all the pages will get some additional PR value. It is commonly believed that pages with higher PR values get crawled more often. However with the new Google site map facility this may not be as important as in the past. And the only pages that need frequent crawling and indexing are pages that change their content frequently. Now if the answer to your question is "b." then you may be paying for nothing. PR doesn't make your page more relevant, and Google uses relevance, however measured, to determine SERP placement. Google does use backlinks to determine relevance, but it is anchor text and possibly the theme of the link pages that determines relevance, not the PR of the page. The reason that pages with high PR value general rank high in hte SERPs is not because of the high PR value perse. The high PR value suggests that these pages have a lot of backlinks, but it is the relevancy of these backlinks that push them to the top of the SERPs not the PR.
Thanks much for the reply. I don't really care what the PR says. I want the higher ranking for my relevant searches. My pages are very relevant for the terms they are targetting...so, I am not trying to get away with anything. Just trying to get better placement for the very relevant search phrases. Like I said, I have a lot of pages that are all relevant, and I'd like to get the effect on them as much as possible. But, if I'm just wasting my money for the PR9, that's what I need to know... Considering all of this, from what you're saying, it seems that the PR9 is not worthwhile. Just to confirm and be 100% sure, is that correct?
If the site is relevant then all well and good but i disagree that it won't do any good for SERPS unless it is relevant. I think its more important to look at how many other links are on the same page that you have your link on. The more that there are will dilute the effect that you get from it. If there are not many then it sounds like a fantastic link (depending on what you are paying).
If you manage to find among those PR9 websites, a related theme, PR9, than ask for a link to one of your pages, not to the index. Try to find your most important keyword (like one of your services/products), and link to that page, with the anchor that really counts. The one that it will bring you customers. It will matter pretty much more than a PR5, let's say.
Hi Mystik, As others have mentioned it's not high PR that matters. What you want are links from pages that have topics related to your site, and also links from sites with "authority". It can be hard to define authority since it's sort of the all powerful invisible element. What I would do is look at the age of the site. How long has it been live? How long has the content been live? How well does it rank for it's targeted keywords? I would also look at any other sites that paid for links. How well are they ranking? Here's another thought....outside of boosting your links, how much exposure to your targeted audience will you receive from this? Have you compared the value and cost of running a press release campaign, which could potentially bring you similiar links as well as build your site exposure?
I do press releases already. So, this would be separate from that. Thanks to everyone for the feedback.
I would agree. Most of the PR9's are authority sites which if it's themed will give extra credit and more importantly bring extra traffic.
I would then... 1. Look at how well it ranks for it's targeted keywords. Does it seem like an authority site? Is it getting a lot of traffic. 2. Compare the cost of getting links from several lower pr, but themed, sites. Even sites with pr 5 or 6 can pass on a lot of weight, especially if they have topics related to yours. If you're already doing press release have you been developing a priority distribution list? I know most people are familiar with PRweb, and it's good to utilize their service, but you'll get a lot better chance of actually getting mentioned on a site if you send out directly to their editors.
Thanks. Yes, my press releases are sent directly to the editors (I usually use PRWEB too). I use DPDirectory for sending press releases direct to editors.
I have seen sites rank #1 for a competitive word (1 word keyword) on Google by having PR8 or PR9 links stay put for 6 months to a year....
I do agree that it doesn't a take very many backlinks to help boost your serps. It's about quality...not quantity.
A couple of things to mention: 1. I know of people who can use a 302 and cloaking to create PR10 sites at will. You can see one at work here, which uses the backlinks from Google.com no less: http://www.pr10.darkseoteam.com/ So first thing to be sure of - if you are planning in investing a lot of money in a site with high PR, make sure the site is genuine first. 2. Second point is something that Greg Boser at Webguerrilla (v. experienced link builder) mentions, is that is that if your targeted niche is generally all PR4 and PR5, then buying very high PR links can put you well above any radar Google may have in the area. Just somethings to think about.
For us dumbies meaning? Are you trying to say getting a very high PR link for a fairly non-established/low PR site can have negative effects or have no effect at all
I'm suggesting that people with more experience than myself may certainly advise caution on buying high PR links. Greg Boser ius someone who tells audiences at SES that guestbook and blog spamming works in volume, so this isn't general whitehat scare-tactic mumbo-jumbo. Another point worth mentioning is that Google doesn't always allow toolbar PR to be parsed from a site in the traditional way - if you want a blatant example then check out the link to Doreo Hosting in the footer of every page of PR9 phpbb.com. PR2 last time I looked.
Again, it depends upon the playing field you're on and also whether the liks you buy parse PR. I guess the point I'm making is that it's worth trying to make as informed a decision as possible - I've simply tried to highlight a couple of potential pitfalls to try and steer clear of.