2 linking strategy questions

[LoveNotWar]

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone can shed any light on 2 questions that I have re. link exchanges ...

1. Home page/ Link page/ any page??? Many sites have a higher PR on their home page, and use a "links" page to put links on, which does not have a very high PR. I am talking Google here. My question is that if someone with a PR 6 homepage, but only a PR 2 "links" page links to you from that Links page, do you get the benefit of being linked to from a PR 6 or a PR 2 site? Or somewhere in between?

2. Although one doesn't often have control of the code that the other webmaster uses, is there a way of writing the link code (using descriptions, key words, anything else) that would make the link a "better read" for the Bots. And also does linking using an image matter? Is it better with text?

Any ideas and thoughts on those would be really greatly appreciated,

Lao

[janeth]

Hi LoveNotWar,
If someone links to you from a pr2 page no matter what the rest of the pages on that site are you only get what the pr for the page with your link on it.
Then that number is divided by the number of out going links on that page. So a pr2 page where you are the only out going link would be better then a pr6 page with 100 out going links.

Now you get credit for the key word used in that link. So if you use your web site address then when someone searches for your web site address you will get credit for that link in your ranking with Google. But if someone searches for your key word you will not get credit other then just your site pr.

Now this is the other thing we have found. It is better to use one key word per link like web design then web design and web marketing. Also it is better that your key word is the link someone would click on to find your web site.

[JMac]

The first question I'll have to leave for a page rank expert.

The second question - here is my humble opinion - which seems to have worked well for the link exchanges I'm involved in.
I supply the code to be used for such an exchange - this way I have a lot more control over the content of my inbound link.
I use the title tag for each and every link - also don't use "Click here" use a descriptive blurb AND the title tag. I use my keyterms both in the visible text and the link title tag.
When it comes to linking with an image, you should still use the alt tag for SEs and people who browse without images enabled. (Yes - there are some people surfing the 'net as text only - use your alt tags for every image). Overall, I'd have to say that text links go over better with SEs than image links. Keyword density (done properly ie. no hidden text) never hurt anyone!

Good luck and, above all, enjoy!

JMac

[janeth]

Hi JMac,
It has also been proven that more people will click on a text link then on a banner.

[ReadyCompanies]

hi Janet

sorry for the additional question

if the site had a PR 0 for links page and the homepage had a PR 1
- would it be still worth it to have reciprocal links?

if so - should i then request for my main keyword to be linked from the site or should i request the optimised main title tag of my website homepage as the text link code.
which is better?

[janeth]

Hi ReadyCompanies,

To start with yes I would change links with a pr0 page if the home page was a pr1.
You never know what the site may be in another 6 months and even a pr0 will give you a little ranking.

I change up when doing links. Sometimes I get them to link useing the key word "web design" sometimes "marketing" and I also do not have all my links coming into my home page.

The reason I do this is because I may have a page about web design I need all the links coming to that page to be about web design but I may have another page about search engines I want all the links coming to that page to be about search engines.

Now it will take me a lot longer to get ranked for one of my key words but it will also help me to get ranked for a lot more key words.

[rlrouse]

To start with yes I would change links with a pr0 page if the home page was a pr1.
You never know what the site may be in another 6 months and even a pr0 will give you a little ranking.

Janeth is right on the money with this one. Today's PR1 home page might be a PR6 in a few months that is leading a PR4 or 5 links page.

Of course, if the home page is at PR6 and the links page is PR0, that raises a red flag. Unless the links page is new, there is very likely a penalty applied to that page and your link will be worthless from a PR standpoint.

Another possibility is that there is no link to the links page from any other page on the site, hence there is no way for PR to flow from the rest of the site to the links page (and no way for visitors to navigate to it making your link worthless). This is a trick that is sometimes used to get a one-way "reciprocal link".

As for the first question, a link on a PR2 links page is just that (a link on a PR2 page), regardless of the PR of any other page on the site. PR is page specific, not site specific.

A link on a PR6 home page will always be more valuable in every way than a link on a PR2 links page.

First of all, the home page will give your link more visibility and more click-throughs than you could ever hope for on a links page.

Also, your link on a PR2 links page would have to share the PR wealth along with all the other links on the page (both internal and external).

[janeth]

Hi rlrouse,

Can a penalty applied be applied to one page with out effecting the whole site?

[rlrouse]

Hi Janeth,

Yes, penalties can be levied on one page of a site without affecting the rest of the pages. This is actually pretty common, especially where a links page has linked to a "bad neigborhood" but the rest of the site is clean.