Getting over the PR6 Hump

Now what?

[pixelpusher]

I have spent several weeks optimizing the content of my site and have seen little change in the PR from Google. The one thing I haven't done is tried to increase the number if inbound links. Currently the home page has a PR 6 with the average internal pages ranging from PR5 to PR2. Am I at the point where the only way to increase PR is to increase the number of inbound links?

[buckworks]

Yep!

[Mohamed_E]

Am I at the point where the only way to increase PR is to increase the number of inbound links?

Increasing the number of links is the only way ever to increase the PR of your site. Many other things can improve its ranking, but PR itself is exclusively about links.

[pageoneresults]

Here's the inherent problem that I see with this. There are certain industries where PR7+ is just not a viable goal. A PR6 in one industry may be the equivalent (in ranking power) to a PR8 in another industry.

[nakulgoyal]

When you work on Link Building / Link Popularity, getting inbound links for you, make sure:

Link popularity can do a lot for your site. Not only will many search engines rank you higher, but links from other sites will also drive more traffic to you.

Link popularity is much more than a measure of how many links point to a site. Search engines use far more sophisticated formulas to gauge how popular sites are. In general, however, link popularity is measured by the following factors:

1. Number of Links - The more, the better. Although lots of irrelevant links are less effective than a few relevant ones, they're better than nothing. Inktomi, a company that provides search results to engines like HotBot, still values the number of links more than anything else.

2. Link text - The text used to describe a link can also affect your rankings. These three links all point to the same URL but use different text:

Yourwebsite.com
Your Keywords
Click here

Search engines' spiders figure that any words other sites use to describe your site are particularly relevant. So, if lots of sites linking to you use keywords in their link text, search engines will boost your ranking for those keywords.

And they SHOULD NOT be FFA links, NO Guestbook Links, NO Link Farms...100% geniune HTML links. NO Hidden Links or Hiddeen Text!

[Dan_C]

"Currently the home page has a PR 6 with the average internal pages ranging from PR5 to PR2."

Sorry to ask a newbie question here but what exactly is this PR you are talking about.
I've tried to find the answer by searching the forum under what is PR? etc but cant work out the exactly what people mean by it.

At first I assumed it just meant Page rank i.e. if i go to altavista and search a keyword and i find my site listed on page 9 i have a PR of 9, so ideally i should be aiming for a PR of 1, but i dont think this is right somehow.

Sorry for the dumb question but we all have to start somewhere!.

Another question: does anyone know a site or free software i can use which will search the web and show me which sites have links to my website on them?
TIA

[johnnydequino]

Dan C - PR means page rank, yes.

Google calculates page rank based on link exchanges and other variables. You want a higher page rank, it has nothing to do with a search engine results page. (SERPs)

Go to alltheweb and type in:

link:http://www.(Your Domain).com

Yes, right now alltheweb is more accurate than Google in regards to see who is linking to you.

Hope this helps -

jd

[Macro]

Sorry to ask a newbie question here but what exactly is this PR you are talking about.

Dan_C, go to [toolbar.google.com...] and download it, then where you are browsing sites/pages you'll see their Google PR.

In the context of this thread PR refers to Google's Page Rank which was a kinda God-like thing till recently, when it was demoted to merely saint-like status (in the minds of the average webmaster) :-)

[Dan_C]

johnnydequino - thanks for that, much appreciated. the alltheweb site shows me site links.

makro - thanks download and installed.
Doesnt seem that impressive/important to me though.
My site is in the top 10 in google but that bar says its not ranked. I tried a search on the term 'money' and only 1 site in the top 20 results was ranked!

thanks again to both of you.

[mil2k]

Increasing the number of links is the only way ever to increase the PR of your site. Many other things can improve its ranking, but PR itself is exclusively about links.

I would second that. Also I have seen many ppl getting distracted from their primary goal (e to rank in search engines) and dedicate their efforts only in increasing their PR. The most importnt question would be is the site ranking well? HTH :)