High PRLinks

[3States]

Hard to say V,

Not sure PR is the best metric to be worried about. Although at the PR8 level I would assume we're talking about high-traffic, high quality sites that Google cares about.

The effect depends on how you use those links and what you're doing. Would you use them for brand building or try to fit in anchor text? If they're just boilerplate text links, they might not pass anywhere near the value you might expect. If you can get links in high-visibility areas surrounded by relevant text, go for it. If they're going to be buried under unrelated text, I'd start to think you'd be better off spending your time and money elsewhere.

Remember that there are metrics that matter and ones that don't. I can get on the first page of the SERPS for "mike is the best guy in the world because he's awesome" no problem. With that long-tail, getting 20 high-value links would be about all I'd need to do, if even that. On the other hand, if you're targeting a phrase like "online schools" or "car insurance," those links might not even budge your ranking.

Maybe my examples are a little extreme, but you get the idea. If the link will bring you traffic and, more importantly, sales, get it. Links need to ripple. Readers on such a high-powered site will ideally:

• click the link without thinking
• consider linking to your site themselves
• talk about your site and products/services

In my experience, this happens only when you have something stellar to offer at the other end of the link, aim for super-relevant anchor text on a super-relevant site, and position the link above the fold. That's an awesome link, even on a PR2.

Mike

P.S. I wouldn't recommend buying mikeisthebestguyintheworldbecausehesawesome.com though. I've got that niche dominated.

[vijayvasu]

Mike, thank you , I appreciate your thoughtful+ insightful response to my question.

After your response I feel its best if I actually spend time and money on slightlylover PR sites that are super relevant with some crafty anchor text.

Would love to connect with you more mate.

Best,

V

[KeriMorgret]

Keep in mind that the links themselves do not have pagerank. Also, are the links from a page itself that has a toolbar pagerank of 8, or from a site whose homepage has a toolbar pagerank of 8? Sure, I have a link to my business website  (which ranks on the first page of Google if I choose the right keywords) from a stanford.edu address. It's a subdomain on stanford's site that got fewer than 100 visits in the last year. Doesn't mean that the link does me a bit of good, but I can make it sound great when I say I have a link from Stanford an a .edu link.

[3States]

That's a very good point Keri. I see this happen all the time too. Good example is something like this:

http://fitnesstrainingbyjon.squarespace.com/

If you use a handy SEO toolbar, it would display Site PR as 7 but Page PR as 3. That PR 7 is coming from squarespace.com, not the site you think. And no, you're not getting a PR 7 link.

[KeriMorgret]

Also remember that links that are bought for the purposes of passing pagerank are quite frowned upon by Google.

[3States]

Sure V. Happy to answer any questions you have about marketing and SEO. Hit me up on LinkedIn or message me here sometime.

By the way, saw your earlier post and checked out your site. Like the design, but I'm also a bit concerned about the +1 checker. Remember that you do run a business site, and any sort of pop-up is kind of a turn-off to visitors.

There may not be anything specifically in the Google webmaster rules about how you're using the +1 button, but you better believe that Google has penalized sites before for much less. Even if you don't get a ban hammer, any value you get from all those Google+ social signals will be reversed, I can pretty much guarantee it when Google finds out. Engineers at Google are a lot smarter than we'd like to think.

Is it really worth the risk?

[3States]

I like to think that any worthwhile link that can be bought with money can be earned with outstanding content. If a website owner has any clue what they're doing and you pitch them properly, he'd be insane to pass up the opportunity to share some valuable content with his readers.

When you find yourself about to spend $100 on a link, hire a good writer or infographic designer instead and rest easy knowing the Google Gods are smiling.

Thanks for keeping the discussion going Keri!

[vijayvasu]

thank you.yes I am concerned too.I am confused about+1 search impact .

I got our team to check out the +1 button policy

http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/policy.html

seems to check out, but i dont want to do anything wrong.

what do you think also my linked in - linkedin/in/vijayvasu

[vijayvasu]

thankyou, yes ,we learnet that lesson when we outsourced  a linkbuildproject.Itotally get it.so true.

[3States]

Think of any social media signal like a Like, +1, or Tweet as just another type of link. Like Keri put it, Google frowns on bought links. They also don't like it when you try to game their search engine.

Your visitors aren't all clicking that +1 to "vote" for your site's quality or relevance. They're doing it because, for all intents and purposes, they have to if they don't want to keep seeing that pop-up.

Sure, you're not doing anything that's going to hurt your visitors. You are, as they see it, deceiving Google.

Let me give you an example of just how ruthless Google can be with this type of stuff. I worked with a company long ago that came up with an idea to give out award badges (a graphic with a link back to their site) to a ton of high-quality blogs. Best 100 Animal Rights Blogs type of stuff.

Seemed great at the time. They got a ton of links from some great sites. Google came along after they noticed them climbing the SERPS and hand-penalized the entire site. It took months to undo that mistake.

Now that example is nowhere near as dicey as your Google+ technique, and it inspired a penalty that cost the company thousands, if not millions.

Your technique, although not directly referenced in the webmaster guidelines, really does walk that fine line. It was a great idea, but it really will eventually get you in trouble. Google makes their own rules, and there's nothing to stop them from penalizing you if they want for anything they see as manipulating their search engine results.

I also want to add that I'm just as concerned for how your visitors will respond to your technique as I am with how Google responds. Many of your potential clients will have some understanding of SEO. How will they feel about the authenticity and legitimacy of your SEO services when they see something like that on your site? It may not necessarily be, but it screams black hat SEO to me.

Mike