Why did my page rank drop?

Dropped page rank after adding a link directory.

[patch051]

My website had a page rank of 4 and was doing ok in placement with various keywords. I recently added a link directory with links to relative sites. Most of the sites link back. After doing this my PR dropped to a 3 and google did not show any link popularity and I lost rankings. Is there a reason for this?

[mack]

before you where keeping all your pagerank within your site now some PR will be passed to other sites as oposed to back to the homepage of your own site.

[EliteWeb]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld patch051!

:) I just read over your message. I see where you could have some concerns, and as mack said you will pass along PR and thats the fun of ranking. But I'd also like to bring to your attention that many sites people saw dropped ranking all together to a notch lower because of algarythm changes within google. I myself saw many of my pages PR drop a notch, I even have more links but it still dropped and I blame it on how google changed their rythm. So it could be possible that your site was also seen to have dropped PR with my sites :P

[patch051]

If PR is passing to other sites as apposed to my home page, how would I create more PR and link popularity if I can't offer reciprocol links?

[ogletree]

All you need to do is get one site with 2 more PR than you and you will go up 1. Maybe somebody with a PR5 took you off there website. It could be that simple. I have a site that only has 3 links to it anywhere and nobody ever goes to it and I have a PR3 because one of those links is a PR4.

[vdlddd8379]

Ogletree, I don't think it's really as simple as to say that by just getting one site with a PR two notches higher than your own that you would automatically increase your PR by one level. As I understand it, your PR isn't really just a 3 or a 4, it's somewhere in between (but we don't get to see the true number). I'm no expert but I've read that it gets geometrically more difficult to increase PR as you go up the ladder. For example, you need fewer inbound links to increase one level from a 3 to a 4 than you would need to increase one level from a 5 to a 6. In both cases you are talking about increasing one level of PR but what it takes for that one level increase is astronomically different. It could be that patch051 was barely on the cusp between a 3 and a 4 (like a 4.02) and now he's at a 3.93. To patch051 it's like "What did I do to deserve to drop from a 4 to a 3?" when in reality he probably only dropped a fraction.

[ogletree]

that may be correct but I think that below 5 it could be just one site. As far as my example I don't know if that one sites PR4 link to me was what helped or his domain that has a PR6. I do know that there is are only 3 sites on the google search engine that point to my page and one of them is a 4 and I am a 3.

[patch051]

In any case I want to link with websites which have a higher PR than me right? Also if I only link TO sites with a HIGHER PR will I still pass my PR?

[steve128]

You can lose PR if a PR1/2/3 site drops a link to your site, especially if your site is boardering on the edges of PR4.

PR5 and over a low PR site dropped link may not show, you would remain PR5 but a lesser PR5, maybe PR5.3500, rather than PR5.4500

To lose PR5 would take a more dramitic loss than a PR4, all things being equal.

As I know to my cost