Link to homepage or subpage

[jmwebguy]

I have a portfolio on my site of sites I've designed. On each of those client's homepages I have a image with a alt tag and it links back to my site. Currently, I have it linking to another page on my site so I can keep good track of referrals. Is it better for SEO though to link directly to my homepage instead of this other page?

[rogerd]

A lot depends on your expectations for the link, i.e., is it there to generate traffic, to transfer Google PR, to get an anchor text boost, etc.

Since you are set up to track traffic from it, you must expect to get some clicks. That would suggest that delivering visitors to an appropriate page would make most sense - either a page about your web design services, or your home page if that's the primary topic of your site. A custom landing page can work well, too, since you can provide targeted navigation choices.

If you are focused on Google, though, you probably want to link to your home page (so that you can maximize home page PR and spread the PR around the site) or a targeted interior page that could benefit from better PR or an anchor text boost for its primary keyword target. Purely from a Google standpoint, a link to a custom landing page with little content and unlikely search prospects is probably a waste.

[jmwebguy]

My sole reason is for PR. With that said, I guess I need to have all the links go to my homepage.

Thanks for the information.