Links - quality or quantity

[tiger1]

I haven't checked a site for quite a while, but recently found out that google is reporting it has 335 backlinks.
This is more than a ten fold increase - and yet the PR remains unchanged at PR4.

As I have not actively obtained links for this site (I have only just put up an "Add Links" page), I took a look at the google backlinks and found that most of these were added to/by minor directories.

I suspect that my PR remains the same, even though there are now over 10 times as many google reported backlinks - is because to get from PR4 to PR5, either:
1. requires links from comparable PR pages - not from those with lower PR?
2. from higher PR pages?
3. each incremental PR rank requires a high exponential increase in the quantity of links if they are of a lower PR?
4. links are not the deciding factor for PR?
5. Google has stopped updating PR!

Has anyone any views on the subject? Or could someone point me to some articles that might provide some answers?
Thanks.

[janeth]

1. requires links from comparable PR pages - not from those with lower PR?
2. from higher PR pages?
3. each incremental PR rank requires a high exponential increase in the quantity of links if they are of a lower PR?
4. links are not the deciding factor for PR?
5. Google has stopped updating PR!

Which site are you looking at. I looked at one of the sites you have that is a pr4 but only shows 7 back links with Google

1. Google counts all pr even pr0 will add some pr to a sote.

2. It takes more to get from pr4 to pr5 then from pr1 to pr2

3. links are the only deciding factor for Page Rank?

4. The tool bar is only a rough idea and should not be used for anything other then just getting a rough idea. Google does not show all the back links to a website.

[tiger1]

Hi janeth,

Thanks for the input.
I better not identify the site here - but I have checked again. Not even sure I am checking it the same way as when I last checked - all those months ago.

But I get different results using:
link: www.xxxdomain.com 128
links: www.xxxdomain.com 342 (it's showing 342 today)
link:www.xxxdomain.com 11
links:www.xxxdomain.com 0

What is the right way to check back-links?

[adore]

From the this particular set of queries the 'link:www.address.com' is valid, however it's not very accurate - you'd better use other queries like @www.address.com or +"www.address.com" which should give more relevant results.

[cbp]

What is the right way to check back-links?

For Google there is no right away. Ignore what you get from Google backlinks - its only ever a sample.

CBP

[tiger1]

<<<<<<<<<<<
@www.address.com or +"www.address.com"
<<<<<<<<<<<
You might have something there - these 2 gave the same figure.

[ronniethedodger]

As CBP said, there is no right way of checking for backlinks at Google. As stated before also, the link: query at Google only provides you with a sampling of back links.

The problem with @:"www.address.com"form of query is that it does not report just backlinks (if they are in the results to begin with). They also report results that make a "textual" reference to the given domain name ... which is not the same as a backlink.

Take this example for instance (which will show up in that query):

• Webstractions Web Design News
  A bunch of nonsense description stuff about my site which will do me absolutely no good in combination with the link above.
  www.webstractions.com

Hover over the link to see the actual Url in your status bar. There is no backlink here to my site, but it will show up in that query though.

Like CBP said, there is no way of verifying backlinks with Google.

[Mac 5]

Does it matter if other websites link to your homepage or a page within your site? Would your get the same PR benefit for your whole site or just the page that is linked?

[cbp]

whole site or just the page that is linked?

PR is per page not per site.

CBP

[Dragonsi]

I'm not sure why and if it helps, but one of my directory sites ( www.pembdirectory.co.uk ) has jumped from PR3 > PR6 in just a few months. As far as I am aware, there are less than 100 backlinks to this domain.

I do constantly update this site and some of the featured links go to good PR sites. Plus of course it features in my signiture below (which I'm sure helps)..

[ronniethedodger]

That is interesting. Some of those backlinks may disappear. You are being listed as pembdirectory.co.uk and www.pembdirectory.co.uk in Google. It would be interesting to see what happens later down the road when they connect the two together.

[tiger1]

<<<<<<
I'm not sure why and if it helps, but one of my directory sites ( www.pembdirectory.co.uk ) has jumped from PR3 > PR6 in just a few months. As far as I am aware, there are less than 100 backlinks to this domain.
<<<<<<<
Certainly is interesting - Bet you wish you know why and how to duplicate it!
PR3 to PR6 - without going to PR4 and PR5? Maybe you've got a link from a PR7 site?

links: www.pembdirectory.co.uk showed about 189

[Dragonsi]

It is interesting, I have also noticed that sites that are linked to from this directory have had increased PR.

There was a point a few months back, when this sites PR dropped from 4 to 3, this happened after including a certain recuprial link. I then removed that link and on the next PR update, it jumped to 6. The linked site in question has now been taken offline, it was a link-farm - can't remember the name of it....

[Mel]

Originally Posted by Dragonsi

I'm not sure why and if it helps, but one of my directory sites ( www.pembdirectory.co.uk ) has jumped from PR3 > PR6 in just a few months. As far as I am aware, there are less than 100 backlinks to this domain.

I do constantly update this site and some of the featured links go to good PR sites. Plus of course it features in my signiture below (which I'm sure helps)..

Seems that you may be more popular than your realize Dragonsi -

the @URL search in google lists 365 pages which contain that phrase and those that I checked were all links.

[scisoft]

Originally Posted by Dragonsi

There was a point a few months back, when this sites PR dropped from 4 to 3, this happened after including a certain recuprial link. I then removed that link and on the next PR update, it jumped to 6. The linked site in question has now been taken offline, it was a link-farm - can't remember the name of it....

This observation nicely agree with (otherwise speculative) badrank hypothesis stating that Google uses badrank (linking to bad sites) as a correction facor for pagerank calculations.

[Mac 5]

I know there is a lot of talk about linkfarms but I still wondering how to tell the difference between an honest list of links and a linkfarm. Is a PR=0 the best way to tell? Also if links are a free for all or typical spammers like viagra, gambling and dating services, instead of a list related to one industry. If you start a trade links page is it easy to fall into the linkfarm category?

[Dragonsi]

I was blind at first, they offered me the link and I took it. After the sites PR dropped, i did some invertigating... It turned out there was about 6 website's, each with different domain names but everyone had the same content. Once I saw this, I removed their link...

I have heard many say this before on these forums, always do a little investigating when you link up with someone. We all know how important good links are, so don't just accept any offer. [look before you jump]