How many links does it take?

to increase PR by 1

[BigVarsity185]

Ok, I realize that my 5-year-old is capable of more complexity in a question, but I'm a simple guy.

I am about to embark on a link-building campaign in order to improve the power of three of my URLs. I suspect that this question drastically oversimplifies a complex topic, but I am hoping that someone has a general rule of thumb, like:

'Get 10 links from a PR4 site to increase PR by 1'

I just want to know how to set my goals.

Have pity on me.

Thanks in advance.

[lbobke]

as far as I know, the Google toolbar has a logarithmic scale, so you need more links from level to level.
Also, you have to take into account the number of links on the linking page.
It may be better to be linked from a PR4 page with few outbound links than to a PR5 page with hundreds of outbound links.
Personally, I have given up trying to predict the effect a link would have.
I'm looking for on-topic sites with good content and high traffic. If they also have a high PR, this is just an added benefit...

Laurenz

[chopin2256]

Actually thats a good question. I was way confused about this concept when I first started out, back in August. You can go here [thinkbling.com...] for a approximate future projection of what your pagerank may be.

Also, lets say a domain name has pagerank 8, and you get your link on a subpage from that domain name. The subpage is lets say, pagerank 2. You will only get the affects of the pagerank 2 page.

[DerekH]

BigVarsity185 wrote

I just want to know how to set my goals.

Well, surely your goal is to get more visitors, not get more PR?

The world is your oyster for how you can do that, but getting more PR isn't the be-all and end-all!

DerekH

[jk3210]

>>...but getting more PR isn't the be-all and end-all! <<

Yeah, and to drive that point home, here's an example:

One of my sites that has been #1 for ages is a PR6 with 500 inbounds. One of my distant competitors is also a PR6, but with 8,000+ inbounds, and he's w-a-y down the list in rank.

500 links = PR6
8,000 links = PR6...a wide range to say the least.

Things may change tomorrow, but for now, PR ain't (necessarily) the answer.

However, acquiring more links IS a very worthwhile endeavor.

[matt21811]

A lot of experienced webmasters here down play the importance of PR as a major factor in ranking. It is true that many factors contribute to ranking and PR is only one but I dont have a problem putting some focus on it.

For new optimisers with existing sites, I think some early emphasis on PR can yeild very good results. The great thing about PR is that it is measureable, fairly preditable and easy to understand. That makes it a great start into seo.

It is smart to understand that although high PR will not automatically lead to high position, a very low PR score will lead to low position in competitive serps.

[kaled]

Depending on how competitive a search term is, it seems to me that a well optimised page can compete with pages 2-3 points higher in PR.

To answer the original question, assuming all links are treated equally (on average) to increase your PR by one point, you will need to increase your backlinks by 4 to 16 times. Opinions differ as to the notional log base of the toolbar PR scale, however, I think most people agree it is within this range.

Kaled.