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The basic state of PR is that if the page linking to you has many links on it the PR gain is diluted. Thats fine. But, I guess if the page that links to you has hardly any other links on it it might not be a particularly well themed page.
This is suggesting to me that there should be some sort of optimum tradeoff between number of links for PR and number of links for theming. Of course its only a valid suggestion if the other links are on topic and specific enough to contribute to theming.
Any thoughts??
Cheers
Robber, I personally agree with what you're saying, that there needs to be a trade-off and a balance.
PR may be numerical, but it's not the only criteria, and consideration given to theming adds an element of relevance and value to site visitors in addition to additional benefits, which could be more or less at any given point in time.
Robber, the basic premise of this thread appears to be that Google's theming is or will be based, at least to some extent, on the pages linked from pages that link to you.
Given Google's liking for link-mapping and the 'similar' feature, I agree that this seems a likely approach.
you are mentioning a good point. Many members in this forum would applaud a more "theme-based" or "topic-based" Pagerank. see also:
[webmasterworld.com...]
I am quite sure Google has evolved from the initial Pagerank formula:
PR(A) = (1-d)/N + d*(PR(T1)/C(T1) + PR(T1)/C(T1) + … + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))
and that the dilution factor is a bit more sophisticated then a simple dilute by the number of links regardless which page is consulted.
Nevertheless if you publish an amazing story on the web, it might be so good, authorative and explicitly on topic/theme, that others will not even think of mentioning another link than the one towards your page.
If we believe that there is to be a move towards stronger theming, which seems sensible, do you try and factor this in when you are looking to establish links? That is, at this point in time are you prepared give up some PR to get better theming when establishing links.
This would be an extreme example but can you foresee an occassion where you might prefer to be linked to from a websites "resources" page rather than a more prominent page eg home page. Of course, there would be much more to consider, but it portrays the problem well.
I guess something else to consider is that there might be optimal points in the development process for each. eg it might be better for a site to establish PR up to some point say PR5-6, then it could be more beneficial to switch to establishing a theme. Just a thought!
