Link text boost - quantity or quality?

which will work better in terms of link text boost

[Furmanov]

Hi, based on your experience which may work better, multiple low pr links (let's say 400 4/10) or fewer high pr links (3 of 8/10)? The question is about link text boost effect only. Assuming both groups of links transfer exactly the same amount of pr to the targeted pages, which of the two will do link text boost better?

I understand that probably nobody knows the right answer but I'd be very interested to hear your ideas.

[AmericanBulldog]

Site wide several hundred/thousamnd pages will help reinforce your anchor text.

Individual links will work as well for your target serps.

[Collieman]

Fewer high PR links...two examples to support this

1 . I had a reciprocal link request from a site saying that they were just starting their link building but had a PR of 5..so i just had to check how this was achieved. They had 2 related sites ( PR 5 and 6) and both these sites had a link from the index page to their new site's index page....very few other links.

2. I have seen sites where an internal page ranks very well on competitive ( PR 4 and 5) terms. The internal pages have no back links BUT they do have link text from high PR pages within the same site.

Well thats my opinion....but as always please advise if this is incorrect...its the best way to learn :-)

[tenerifejim]

Not a great answer but both. There is less risk involved in getting more lower PR links though. For example, if one of your PR 8s goes down or stops linking it will have a greater effect on your serps than losing one PR4.

Having said this. With a higher PR ranking in the from a PR8 boost, your extra exposure in the serps will open up the potential for a greater number of link exchange requests from other sites. This facilitates the possibility for many more lower PR links to complement the high PR inbounds.

This is less easy the other way round. If you can get 3 PR8s, do it.

[Furmanov]

Thanks all! will I risk if the number of external links grows too fast? I believe I could read somewhere that if a page had 10 links for 3 months and then suddenly gets 250 external links with the same anchor text from the same site... what is your opinion?

[chrisnrae]

Increasing your PR is not going to automatically increase your ranks. This ain't 2002 anymore ;). Ignoring PR for a minute, 400 reinforcements of your anchor text vs. 3 - assuming you already have some quality inbounds from some other places. You didn't say "crap" sites - you said low PR sites. I'd rather have 400 inbounds from 400 PR4, PR3, etc related sites than 3 from related PR8's. But, that could just be me ;).

[mfishy]

quantity from unique domains is best, infinitely better than site wide links for some time now.

[trillianjedi]

I'd rather have 400 inbounds from 400 PR4, PR3, etc related sites than 3 from related PR8's. But, that could just be me

No, it's not just you.

TJ

[Collieman]

Lots of links from PR 4 pages would be great...but i think that with most of the reciprocal linking schemes you will probably be one of say 50 outgoing links on a page which will be lucky to have a PR above 2.

It's this quality of backlink where i doubt the value...but then again if someone offered me a few hundred with no sandbox...:-)

[Marcia]

I'd rather have from a variety of domains right now, no doubt. A combo is good imho - a couple of good PR links and the rest just whatever as long as they're decent. I believe numbers do mean something.

[Airportibo]

I'll go with tenereifeJim: do both.

From PR8 sites you can usually only get one link which points to the homepage. So I try to have the "low" PR-sites to link with relevant keywords to our sub-categories.

Which raises the question: When I acquire backlinks, should I make them all to link to our homepage or distribute the incomming links across our website? What strategy is better?

[Makaveli]

I think more links is better. For anchor text and also lets not forget that those PR3 PR4 sites could increase PR overtime.

With more links you will always be improving. How much can you possibly improve with three PR8 sites? It's not likely they go up any higher.

[steveb]

More links is temporarily better, but that won't last. Search engineing is like food. Good food is better than bad food, no matter how little good food you have. Piling load upon load of dung on a table doesn't make it better.

Having lots of links is just a tactic. Having good quality links is a strategy.

I've had a fascinating situation the past few months. Keyword involved is non-competitive. I have link to a page on a huge, authoritative domain, but this authority domain is one of those that is hideously designed and has tons of duplicate content and url only listings. When the authority page shows as a URL only, my linked to page ranks 26. When the authority page gets freshed and shows as a "normal" title and description listing, my linked to page jumps to number 6. You can take this ranking jump to the bank. It has happened at least five times now.

The link text for the above is the keyword. Interestingly, I have another link on this domain going to another page. Same phenomenon except the link text is something like "click here" instead of the keyword. When this page shows with a title and description instead of URL only, the ranking of my page jumps only slightly (like 29 to 24).

Links from quality domains matter; link text from quality domains matters a LOT.
(again, this is for semi-popular, but non-competitive terms)

[AprilS]

I agree that both are important. From personal experience.

One of my sites this spring I was able to get a PR7 to link to me - which bumped my PR to a PR6 from a PR4. I realized that that PR7 could go away at any time so I worked really hard on getting more quality links. I have to say that having a PR6 was very helpful in obtaining links from higher PR sites.

When getting links I did my best to stick to PR3s and above (usually 4s and 5s).

Another thought though - we have about 400 backlinks on Google and most of those have a PR4-PR6 and my site has a PR6. Now, some of our competitors have ~2,000 backlinks and most of them are PR0-PR3,4 - and they (competitors) also have a PR6. Guess who shows up higher in the rankings....they do. :-(

Though my site has much better "quality" links coming in - I think quantity of links may win in my situation. [I just don't want to screw things up by getting a LOT of low RP sites to link to me. -any advice?]

This gets into a question for "steveb" -

Links from quality domains matter; link text from quality domains matters a LOT.
(again, this is for semi-popular, but non-competitive terms)

I wasn't quite sure exactly what you were saying, but curious if it is what I've experienced - that with extremly highly competative words, that quantity of links to your site is better than quality. What do you think?