Do I ditch links to sites that have low PR?

[OnLyZ]

I have a few links to sites with 0 PR. They have been on my site for a couple of months. Do I ditch them? Or do I only ditch them if I think they are standing still?

[GByte]

Are these sites linking back to you? These sites could one day end up being a PR5+...

even if they dont make higher PR's, if your doing your job correctly with regards to the anchor text, then any link is worth having even if it is a low PR. (within reason of course, link farms etc are a big no no!)

[OnLyZ]

yep, they are linking back... could you take a look at my links page and tell me what you think? I am reading lots here about 'back links' etc, but am not to sure how to apply it

http://www.trinitymarine.co.uk/webcontent2.htm

another question for you, would it benefit me to have some PR5 links on my homepage?

[GByte]

ok, your links page looks fine - if you have links from most of the pages that are on that page then thats good because most of them are of a 'Nautical' theme.

Links to your site (backlinks) are essentially a vote from their web site to yours. The text that is used in those links (anchor text) is a vote for those terms. So for you it would be best to get links pointing to your site with the anchor text as 'Nautical Antiques' or 'Marine Collectables' for example, thus casting votes to your pages for those terms.

Placing links on your homepage to PR5 sites is'nt really of benefit to you. If they are a great source of info for your visitors then that gonna help them but as far as SEO goes whats more important is to get links pointing towards your site.

I hope this makes sense - theres lots of info here about backlinks and also jocelyn has just been made a moderator of these forums and is doing a great job of providing info on backlinks (http://www.seo-guy.com/forum/showthread.php?t=667) and more in the Newbies Forum

[OnLyZ]

basically a 'back link' is a link coming from a URL different to your own, leading to your domain. got it.

thanks for your patience - I know this stuff, but am new to the terminology that is being used...

[seokid]

Pr 0 links are still usefull for sure. Even if they don't end up being a PR 5 they will still be found as long as google is spidering the domain and finding your backlink. I also believe that having a good spread of links coming back from PR 0 and up websites are better than just having a few pr 4's and up, it looks more natural to have the spread than to have only 4's and higher.

[GByte]

[QUOTE=OnLyZ]thanks for your patience - I know this stuff, but am new to the terminology that is being used...[/QUOTE]

Hey no probs. I just had a brain burp and it spat out all that info :p I dont intentionally mean to talk to you as a noob - It can be quite hard to tell the level of knowledge peeps have around here so tried to explain it so that anyone reading knows whats goin on.

[seo guy]

Thats a great explanation GByte and it is always best to answer posts catering to the lowest common denominator because the person who asked the question might be able to understand more advanced lingo but the thousands of other people that may read the post might now get it, so clear plain english and a little extra explaining is never a bad idea :-)

[seo guy]

Oh yeah and Onlyz one other thing regarding linking "from" your site. There is a benefit to it, but not how you are looking at it. your concerned with the PR of the site, when in fact you should be concerned with the "authority" of the site.

That actually helps you in your ranking, by showing that you are not only a resource for kw "X" but you also recognize and link to other helpful resoureces about keyword "X".

I do this myself if you look at the index page of www.seo-guy.com I link to http://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html andits not because its a PR 9, its because I am assuming google will consider that link an authority on SEO and thus recognise my ability to identify it as an authority and share it with my visitors

[OnLyZ]

ok, that makes sense! I am starting to look at this a different way now...

[Dreamshop]

Hey! I'm new to the these forums, but not necessarily seo stuff...although there are some things that still tend to boggle my mind. Linking and pagerank seem to fall in that category.

I'm curious about something SEO guy mentioned...

That actually helps you in your ranking, by showing that you are not only a resource for kw "X" but you also recognize and link to other helpful resoureces about keyword "X".

How does one clarify what's really an authority site? Would you base that on the number of incoming links, amount of pages, type of content? Would Amazon be considered an authority?

I'm working with a client to do some seo and I'd recommended that he link to some industry info and/or create some of his own education info, but he felt that he would either lose visitors or bore them. Right now his site is strictly retail/product based. If I can show him that it would help with his serps he might go for it, but I just haven't been able to explain it that well.

This sentence seems to sum up everything I've been trying to tell him [but wasn't totally sure about myself].

[SEO_AM]

One note of caution: Be mindful of your linking strategy in that you should maintain more inbound than outbound links. If possible, on-theme text anchored one-way natural links carry much more weight than reciprocal links. Submit to every free directory (in your category) that you can find. Most will be one-way. Look at who is linking to your competitors and contact them for a link to your site. Takes time... but is really worth the effort.

[SPARKO]

What you could do is have an evaluation of the site linking to you, if lots of PR0's are linking to you and your running out of space and dont wont to make another directory, remove the rubbish sites which you dont think will make it...and replace with the new. I have one or two PR 0's but thats because I did like their site and could see that they were making an effort to improve their pagerank.

[Pyrrhonist]

[QUOTE=Dreamshop]Hey! I'm new to the these forums, but not necessarily seo stuff...although there are some things that still tend to boggle my mind. Linking and pagerank seem to fall in that category.[/quote]

Jocelyn did a great post about pagerank over here: http://www.seo-guy.com/forum/showthread.php?t=669

[QUOTE=Dreamshop]
How does one clarify what's really an authority site? Would you base that on the number of incoming links, amount of pages, type of content? Would Amazon be considered an authority? [/quote]

G doesn't publish who the authority sites are for a subject. They most definitely aren't just the sites with the no 1 position. Authority sites have a tendency to pop up for almost any keyword combination - even if it is for a page with no backlinks and no (obviously) intentional SEO done one it. Amazon is a good example of what I think is an Authority site - they seem to pop up all the time.

[QUOTE=Dreamshop]I'm working with a client to do some seo and I'd recommended that he link to some industry info and/or create some of his own education info, but he felt that he would either lose visitors or bore them. Right now his site is strictly retail/product based. If I can show him that it would help with his serps he might go for it, but I just haven't been able to explain it that well. [/quote]
Tell him he has to create content. At the very least, every additional page of content that he creates gives him another backlink back to his homepage. But more importantly, lately G has just wanted to see lots and lots of content on sites. If he's in a competitive industry, then he's going to have to create more content.

If he's in an industry where a forum would work, they're a great way to increase your page count. vB like we use here is SE friendly out of the box, and creates a spiderable archive that Googlebot loves. (if you're interested, check out how many pages SEO Guy has archived for his site in Google, and then look at his rankings - there's definitely a bit of a correlation there.)

Even if there isn't - it provides a good example. Amazon is another good example of a site with TONS of pages, as is Microsoft, Adobe, etc. All of the uber-important domains on the internet have a ton of content and pages on them, and you want to emulate that if you can. (hey, isn't that another angle to attack this from? :D)

[Arizona Web]

My motto is if it is relavant, take the link. It doesn't hurt, that's for sure, and that site may end up being a big resource in the future. ;)

[Bela Flor]

Arizona Web, Is there a way, tool, or trick to find out if Google thinks a site is relavant to your site. Such as car parts is that relavant to motorhomes? I just do not know what is relavant and what is not.

If anyone has some hints to this I would appreciate it,

[Dreamshop]

Bela, when in doubt always do things with your visitors in mind. If the site has content that your viewers will be interested in, then it's relevant.

[Arizona Web]

Right on Dreamshop, well said.

There is some relevancy between motorhomes and cars, but probably not aftermarket performance car parts and winnebagos tho. If the page you are thinking of linking with is about the same or similar subject, especially if the title or headers has some of your target keywords in them, then chances are you have a relevant page. If you aren't sure and the link is free, grab it. If you aren't sure and you have to link out to get the link in, then move on.

If your site is about motorhomes, other resources like camping gear or vacation slots may make sense to your users, so snatch those up too.

Linking isn't just for PR, it is actually a useful way to get your site some clicks, so you probably want ot link to sites where you think their users might like your site.

[SEO_AM]

[QUOTE=Arizona Web]Linking isn't just for PR, it is actually a useful way to get your site some clicks.[/QUOTE]

Right on. Your first priority should be to link with relevant sites. Relevancy = clicks from visitors from the site where your link resides = sales.

I currently enjoy 55% of my traffic from non-search engine clicks (I do no paid advertising). That means 55% of my site visits come from either site links from, most likely, relevant sites or from being in the Favorites Menu of my visitors. (Edit: All my primary kw's are in the top 10)

[I, Brian]

[QUOTE=OnLyZ]I have a few links to sites with 0 PR. They have been on my site for a couple of months. Do I ditch them? Or do I only ditch them if I think they are standing still?[/QUOTE]

It is actually worth checking to see whether these sites have been obviously penalised or not - it would perhaps not be wise to link to such places. :)

However, linking on the basis of PR alone I would not class as a very professional attitude - every link has some value, and I would class many links from a wide range of IPs are being much more valuable than lots of links from just one IP block. Even if a links page is PR0, it is still likely an IP under your belt.

[leeds1]

SEO-BOB

Should we therefore all reference Amazon and a book about our subject in our o/b links ?

[Pyrrhonist]

[quote=leeds1]Should we therefore all reference Amazon and a book about our subject in our o/b links ?[/quote]

I didn't say that.

If you were doing a site that sold bananas, and you created a page that talked all about the benefits of bananas, I have been known to put a link at the bottom to "Chiquita Bananas". I figure that doing this is rather like including a bibliography - you are including a reference to a verified source of information and it shows that it's not just a banana in your pocket that's whispering magic writeups to you. Now, if Amazon is THE resource for what you're writing about, then by all means, link to them.

As for Amazon - If you can find Owlcroft (I know he's here somewhere) he has a great package to get Amazon's content on YOUR site. It's still in beta phase, but it's quite a good tool. (his domain is www.seo-toys.com)

[Dreamshop]

[QUOTE=SEO Bob]...it's not just a banana in your pocket that's whispering magic writeups to you.[/QUOTE]


Now there is a damn fine quote!
:D

[Pyrrhonist]

i had to clean it up a bit before posting :D

Glad you like it though