Links from top ranked sites in a google serps

[lfgoal]

I think Matt Cutts recently said something to this effect: dmoz and yahoo backlinks are not, BY THEMSELVES, of any greater significance than other links--->though many dmoz and yahoo links MAY be of higher quality for a variety of reasons just the same as a link from any website might be sigificant if it came from a well-ranked and quality page.

Now...what about this one. Myth or truth?

Is a link from site that is ranked very high in a serps, say page one, more valuable than a link from page 10 or page 30 in a serps?

One might think so, but that page one site could easily be on page 100 itself in the next shakeup. So, is a link from that site really of any more value than a much lower ranked site. Or, is it simply true that a link is a link is a link is a link?

[ptoma]

I've had links from 3 of the top 10 results pointing to me and yet I was nowhere to be found ...

[jakegotmail]

takes much more then 3 links to get ranked for something remotely competitive...

[ptoma]

That's absolutely untrue, considering I was ranked for that specific keyword for a year before June 27th.

[jakegotmail]

we must be talking about two different animals then. good for you for ranking with out backlinks for that exact term.

Bottom line is that to rank in google. generally speaking your site needs quality backlinks as well as quality unique content.

If the term is competitive then having 0 backlinks to your site isnt going to keep you around.

Sure you can rank for "Really old blue widgets that smell bad outdoors" WHY b/c its not competitive.

[jimbeetle]

Is a link from site that is ranked very high in a serps, say page one, more valuable than a link from page 10 or page 30 in a serps?

I'd have to say yes, but for the wrong reason. It really isn't the fact that the page is highly ranked, it's how it got there. So, if it's reworded a bit:

Could certain properties of a page that enable it to rank very high in the SERPs make a link from that page more valuable than from a page much farther down in the SERPs?

Now I can say yes for more of the right reasons. (And that's still a bit hazy, but hey, that's this business.)