Page Rank and Linking : the Interconnection

Page Rank is how Google views a site in terms of its value to consumers. Many different factors and variables can apply, but a rule of thumb that holds true brings us back to the ‘neighborhood’ analogy. If you make friends with sites that have a high Page Rank, and try to move in next door, your real estate will be worth more too.

Linking from site with high Page Rank is one of the best strategies you can employ; but it may not come easily. The more outbound links a site has, the more their Page Rank may decrease, so you had better have some pretty good reason for them to want to link to you.

Excellent content is the best reason. I know we keep hammering on that, but that’s because it’s true! What do people surf the web for? Information. If you have the best information available on a given subject, provided and formatted for maximum ease of use, then you have a product that sells itself. You just have to get it in front of the right people.

Sometimes you can send a sample of your content to your prospective back link, and even offer to provide a page or two of relevant content for their own site in exchange for a link. This can be very effective if you write your own content, and can make a trade of your services.

A point to touch on here is outbound links. I know we try to discourage excessive outbound linking, but if you have an outbound to a relevant (I repeat, relevant) site with an extremely good Page Rank, this won’t hurt and might actually help your own score.

A link to another page is basically a vote. In the world of the internet, all votes are not equal. One vote from a site with high Page Rank is worth twenty votes from pages with none. Think of the highly ranked sites as delegates, who have already received their votes based upon their qualifications. Get a delegate or two on your side, and you become a force to be reckoned with.

Likewise, a vote from a ballot stuffer does you no good in the long run, and might even get you busted for illegal practices. Stay away from sites with lots of outbound links; fifteen outbound links is about the highest number you want to see on a prospective linksite.

When link-building, stop and look at what you are linking from. If your link comes from a well respected site, chances are the consumers will expect that your site will be valuable as well.