One of over hundreds of
attributes, 100+ algorithms, Google uses to rank your web site is how many and
how important the websites are that link to your website. If all other
factors are equal then
PageRank would be the deciding factor. In fact PageRank is very
important in how Google decides how to rank web sites for keyword phrases.
Your PageRank is more important for achieving top rankings the more competitive
the keyword phrases are that you are trying to rank highly on. This is
partly because high traffic keywords increase the number of experts trying for
top rankings, so some keywords are definitely more competitive and therefore
these more competitive keywords require more time/money and superior SEO skills
to have the desired results. Every site that links to you that has a PR of
4+ (rarely if ever lower) counts towards your Google Backward Links
(PR=PageRank) as seen on the Google toolbar.
This is a general rule and is not allows
the way Google does things. Google does not tell anyone the details of how
their ranking algorithms work. Many SEO experts spend a tremendous
amount of time trying to figure out how Google ranks websites. One can
glean some idea of how Google search engine ranking algorithms work by reading
what SEO experts say and by conducting trial and error tests. This of
course can be extremely time consuming and not totally accurate.
Furthermore this process is frustrating because Google can and does change it's
ranking algorithms on a regular basis.
The linking page must have a
PR4 or higher (although sometimes a lower PR ranked page will show). If
the website's index page has a PR of 6, but the page your link appears on is
only a PR of 3, it will probably not count in your backward links.
Remember if you are looking at the Google Toolbar the PageRank meter is not
totally accurate. However it is close and easy and simple to use. My
ten year old daughter understands and likes using the Google toolbar, especially
the PageRank meter. She keeps hoping this web site will go up in PageRank,
it is cute.
Your link title
(anchor text) must be coded a certain way. A link such as YourWebSite.com
will not help you that much in increasing your traffic. You want improved
ranking for high traffic keyword phrases that are highly targeted for the
products and services you are offering on your web site. It does no one
any good if you attract non targeted visitors. That is what makes search
engines so wonderful. They bring together buys and sellers, researchers
and information keepers, etc. together when they both want to be connected.
However if the link is coded so that you can click on e.g. "Ford Trucks" and it
will take people to your site, then that will help more with your search
engine rankings for the keyword phrase "Ford Trucks".
If the URL does
not point to your website per se (i.e.. it is coded with a tracking code
from the other persons site such as "http://www.theirdomain.com /links/yourdomain/abcdx.cgi")
it usually will not count either.
If your target
search term is "Computers", it will help you in your search rankings if your
link has the word computers in it. (i.e.. people can click on "My Fabulous
Computer Site" and go to your webpage).
You should always
be wary of linking to someone with a PR0 because it might actually hurt your
rankings. Google sees that you are linking to a "bad neighborhood" so to
speak. This is true of link farm sites like linkstoyou.com . I am
glad Google gave them a PR0, they just cause Internet pollution, and serve no
useful purpose.
When you do link
exchanges, you should also check to see what the other websites PR is first.
You would be surprised at the number of sites that have been banned, and you
will want to be careful you are not linking into any bad neighborhoods, as that
can also get you banned by association if you have lots of PR0 links to and from
your site, but very few higher PR links.
When you
advertise online, check out the PR of the site and page where your ad will
appear, if it is a PR4 or higher, it could count as a backlink. Again, be
wary if the page your ad will appear on is a PR0 . Stay away.
The more high
quality pages you have in your site the better, you have more content for search
engines to index and more pages can help you create more internally generated
PageRank. See Phil Craven's paper, it is in the top ten if you search for
PageRank
in Google.
