Highest PageRank Limitation?

for highly specialised content

[vmaster]

I run a commercial site marketing a highly specilised item, with a PR of 6, despite being suitably listed in Yahoo and DMOZ. Since the item is quite unusual and uncommon, the number of sites on it as well as the possible links are rather limited. Even the key sites on the product, both www.theproduct.com and www.theproduct.org have PR of 6 each. So does this imply that it is not possible to better the PR due to the limited extent and popularity of the product itself?

[chiyo]

interesting question. we have PR7 for 3 highly specialist site index pages, but one is 8 years old and the other two just acheived it a few months ago after 2.5 years online.

We also have around 50 other PR7's for section indexes within. They are to some extent news and analysis sites for targetted business professionals in a non-internet related area. We never ask for links, they just come.

But at first thought, we are happy with PR7 and it seems to be the highest in the ODP categories for which they are in. We too wonder whether we have hit a ceiling, but dont worry too much about it and conentrate on focus original content and obvious measure to makes each page focused for readers and easy to spider for engines.

Our corporate site (more commercial in nature and highly specialized - it sells management consulting services to international companies for a regional area) has a PR 6 after 6 years, but it has some articles which people tend to link to.

I think the best thing is rather than going for an absolute PR, check the PR in the google directory for categories you compete in, and view the highest Pr site PR as the number to aim for.

Interested in other views re this.

[Beachboy]

<<So does this imply that it is not possible to better the PR due to the limited extent and popularity of the product itself?>>

In theory, any site can obtain any PR, not limited by how specialized a product may be. You can test this by obtaining links from PR 8 sites and your site's PR will definitely jump. (I know there is more to getting PR, but I want to keep this simple.) Get CNN, Yahoo, AOL, Apple and Microsoft to link to your site from their homepages, for example, and you will be sitting pretty indeed. Even if your site is all about left-handed green polka-dot fuzzy widgets.

[chiyo]

Good point BeachBoy.. every PR 8 9 or 10 site has its price I guess, and even if you are unrelated, a PR9 is a PR9! - you get a PR8.