Linking With A Millstone
I've been engaging in reciprocal linking with other websites
for some time. I've always been aware that a single incoming
link from a high PR website is worth far more than many links
from low PR websites (the actual ratio is known only to God).
I've also always been aware, at least over the last couple of
years, that incoming links from non-relevant websites is not
only valueless but can, in fact, have a negative effect on your
Search Engine ranking (*as opposed to PR).
I've written previous articles about linking, one or two of
which have been specifically about the practice of requesting
and accepting links from anybody and everybody. However, I've
never been armed with any 'hard evidence' with which to support
my plea for some sensible thought about the way in which some
people handle their linking practices. This time around, I have
this little offering from Google, the people who are responsible
for the whole 'PR' caboodle.
"How is PR effected if you have text links on a page that is
irrelevant to the website? Links from a non-related site will
still pass PR, but will have little or no effect on the SERPs.
Too many of these might even have a negative effect on SERPs.
Remember, PR matters when all other things are equal, but that
is never the case. You are much better off getting back links
from a relevant PR4 page (and site) with targeted anchor text
than getting back links from an irrelevant PR6." - Ref:
http://www.prlookup.com/faq.htm
There you go. You may not have heard it here first, but it is
out of 'the horse mouth', so to speak. I don't know how long
this particular piece of information has been available at
Google for all to see (I don