A Better Way To Increase Your PageRank

A lot of web publishers believe that the best way to gain a high PageRank, or PR, is to entice highly ranked sites to link to them. The theory is that if a high ranking site links to you, it shares its PageRank. This sounds great on the surface, but there more to it than that.

In reality, Google's algorithm for arriving at PageRank dictates that the amount of ranking a page can pass along to those it links to is its own rank for the page in question divided by the number of outbound links on that page.

This, in a nutshell, means that if you managed to get a site with a PR of 8 to link to you, you won't get a ranking of 8 or even close to it. For example, if this site already has 3 outbound links and you make 4, the PR passed to each site would be 2 units, rather than 8. On top of this, the high PageRank is very likely on the site's home page, not its internal links page, where your link would appear. The PR that's passed on depends only on the PR of the page where the link appears.

Since a lot of higher PageRank sites also happen to have a lot of outbound links, the truth of the matter is these are not always the best places to turn for reciprocation.

A better way does exist. It involves targeting sites that have modest PR ratings, but that are likely to improve. As long as the sites have good content and are reputable, they can pay off very well. Targeted lower PageRank sites might not seem like a good strategy, but it is.

A host of reasons exist as to why these lower PR sites can pay off. The biggest lies in the fact it is generally much easier to get these sites to put up links. Plus, when they do, they are often willing to use keywords in the links themselves. Also, there are more inclined to put links on their front page. Another advantage to these sites that they probably don't already have a bunch of outbound links. The appeal of these reasons is strong, but the most compelling is the potential these sites offer. If high quality sites are chosen, they can grow in PR ranking and your site can grow along with them.

It is wise to research sites to target for reciprocal links though. Stay clear of sites that have PageRank bars in the white or gray. This indicates they have little or no ranking. It could also mean they've been banned. Gray sites in particular can be bad news.

Should you still be on the fence about this strategy, look at the numbers. If an incoming link comes from a page with a ranking of 8 and only has one other link, you'll get a PR boost of 4. A page with a ranking of 6 with a total of 30 links, yours included, will give you .2. The math clearly indicates that the lower PageRank strategy is best.

Jeff Alderson develops PPC and SEO software. He is an expert on boosting traffic and sales. Jeff suggests building a targeted keyword list using his Ad Word Analyzer program to increase website income.

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