Jeopardizing PR with more Links?

Is it better to have fewer links that go to pages with higher PR?

[Bob_Brewski]

Here is my issue... I am optimizing a shopping site and have products from different vendors. Is it better to only have links that go to the best (highest PR) sites, or can I also have links to sites with lower PR that I feel are relevent?

In one case more links would be better for the people shopping because they will have more choices...

On the other hand it sounds like you may dilute your PR with links to lower ranking pages...

Any ideas or comments about this?

[elklabone]

Sounds like you're afraid that your page's PR will drop if you link out too many times..

This is a common misconception.

Links OUT will not affect your PR for that Page.

What you do dilute is the amount of PR that can be passed on to other pages.

For example, a page with PR 5 and two links will pass more PR than a page with PR 5 and 50 links. However, the page will remain a PR 5. PR is effected by the number and PR of incoming links.

If it's a relevant site, go ahead and go for it... unless it looks like they're doing something spammy.

Mark

[dirkz]

It's better to let the PR flow freely. As a rule of thumb you will benefit most from inner pages, not from your index page.

Because you can't optimize one page for all your keywords. But you always can build many pages optimized for a keyword.

[Bob_Brewski]

Thanks! I now have a new understanding of how PR works.

[Bob_Brewski]

Still wondering:

What if (for example) my home page has a PR of 7 and all the 2nd level pages have a rank of 6 and I start linking out to a bunch of other sites...

Will this jeopardize the PR of my home page? Since the 2nd level pages feed into the home page, won't this lower the value of the PR that is passed to the home page?

This is the real question I think I am facing, and I would love to have my facts straight on all of this...

[auinfo]

I'm wrestling with this issue myself.

Are the link exchange sites (where you register to look for sites wanting to link) considered above board?

[auinfo]

Apolgies I just saw the discussion a little below this one which has answered my question. No substitute for hard graft -as usual.
Sorry to be off topic.

[dirkz]

Will this jeopardize the PR of my home page?

The more links you have on the second level pages to other pages, the less PR will be transferred to each page linked to.