One of over 100 factors 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 could be the
deciding factor. Your PageRank is more important the more competitive the
keyword phrases are that you are trying to rank highly on. Every site that
links to you that has a PR of 4+ (sometimes lower) counts towards your Google
Backlinks (PR=PageRank). 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 backlinks.
Your link must be coded a certain way. A link such
as YourDomain.com will not count towards your backward links. However if
the link is coded so that you can click on "My Wonderful Website" and it will
take people to your site, then that will count. 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/abcd.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).
When you link to other people's web pages, it helps your
PR to link to someone with a PR7 rather than a PR2. You should always be
wary of linking to someone with a PR0 because it can actually hurt your
rankings. Google sees you are linking to a "bad neighborhood" so to speak.
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 too many 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, and it appears
when Google does its monthly crawl, it might not count as a backlink.
Again, be wary if the page your ad will appear on is a PR0.
