Link exchanges are not an idea we have entertained in the past but we have recently had a request for a link exchange from a company very similar to ours based in austria. They advertise it as 'a link from a PR4 site'. Their home page is certainly PR4 but the page they'd link to us from has no page rank.
Also, our own website has PR5 on home page, with internal pages gaining PR over the last year or so.

The link would also be a straight link with no anchor text.

How much value would this link hold for us? Would it be of any value to us to link back to them (you have to reciprocate the link if you want one on their site). Would it in fact be detrimental to our own PR to link to a site of lesser PR, and do reciprocal links hold any value these days?

I hear so much about Page rank and I know there are lots of different theories around, but any advice here would be great.
Thank you

My answer in a hurry.

• Link relevancy would be everything to me personally. If the link is relevant, it can not hurt you.
• Why not anchor text? I think anchor text is important. There are examples where pages have got a higher position on the SERP's for words in the anchor text of IBL's.
• Before a final decision, you should perhaps test the site on DNSStuff
• Read what EricWard, "the father" of linkbait writes.
• 21 keys to link bait success may also help you, Pagetta even if it is not directly related to your question.

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Is there harm to linking to a site that has a home page PR of 4, but adds your link to a PR 0 page?

thanks

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No, I personally do not think so.

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Thanks for your response. My backlinks on Google are abysmal (and have steadily fallen) ...so I am trying to figure out what I am doing wrong.

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