Link Building For Traffic And PageRank Status

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

The question still remains, is the Google PR Toolbar a valid marketing tool? Should you use it?

One can only speak from experience, I have always used the Google PR Toolbar and find it helpful in assessing what Google thinks of a site or page. I rarely link out to sites anymore but if I do I always check any potential linking partners to see their PR. Any site with PR5 or over I will link to it if that site is related and has high rankings for my site’s own targeted keyword phrases. I also check out the number of outbound links on that page, lower is better because the amount of PR passed along is divided equally with the other links.

Sometimes I will link to a lower PR3 or PR4 site if I find the content on that site is extremely good and I know it is only a matter of time before Google upgrades that site to a PR5 or higher. You must be very careful not to link out to any type of ‘link-farms’ as Google will penalize you for it.

In my opinion, many SEO experts worry too much over the exact PageRank or Value Google is giving to a page. Whether or not we can really know the true value of any page? Well, the true value of any web page is staring you in the face in Google’s SERPs for if over time a page consistently holds the #1 spot then that is Google’s true PageRank and Value for that page for a particular keyword or keyword phrase. If your page is consistently in the 1000th spot, then Google doesn’t think your page has much value for that keyword.

Your site’s overall value or PageRank within the Google ranking system may be a little harder to figure out if you dismiss the PR Toolbar as a good indicator of your site’s overall worth within Google. Maybe Google has put into place filters and blinders to discourage the online marketers and SEOs who try to abuse and manipulate PageRank.

When it comes to linking, you have to do what is right for your website. I wouldn’t link out to any website just because of its measured PageRank. The real question is, Does the information on that website provide any value to the people I hope to be my customers. Linking off of your website is one of the least paying activities online. That is, there is rarely any return on your investment and when there is it comes in the form of a reciprocal link with additional traffic, which may or may not be converted into sales, or in the form of a greater respectability from your site visitors, who will come back to your site if they liked what they saw on the first visit.

The best value in contributing to your PageRank, at least where linking is concerned, are inbound one-way links from sites that are relevant to yours and that have a high PageRank. Those sites are going to be rare. Chances are, they’re competitors. Why would they link to you?

This small truth is one reason Internet advertising has become such a big industry. If you can get a few inbound links from sites in your industry that are third-party sites – that is, noncompetitive – and those sites have high PageRank, at least higher than yours, then by all means don’t hesitate to purchase an ad on their site. Be careful not to buy just a link as that might eventually work against you, but a paid advertisement for the purpose of attracting additional traffic to your site can work in your favor with PR as well.

The thing you have to remember about link building is it provides more than one benefit. Targeted traffic is the best benefit. Yes, you can increase your own PR and standing in the search engine organic listings with inbound links. But links are doorways into your website and you should think of them that way. If you aren’t getting traffic from a link source then you should be asking yourself why.

One final word, you should include article marketing in your link building strategy. It’s a low-cost method of getting your message out and it can be a huge source of both traffic and quality, high value inbound links.