High PR backlink for new site - not good?

Could it be harmful SEOwise for a new site to get a PR7 backlink within a short period of time after the site was launched? The backlink would be one of the first backlinks that the site is getting at all.

on the contrary. I see what you're thinking. It would seem possibly unnatural. If you never get another pr7, it may seem a bit unnatural, but you won't be penalized. You'll just shift down to where you belong in ranking.

Anytime you can get a pr7, do it. If you know all you can get are a couple of them in a year, you may want to spread them out a bit.

Thanks for the advice! I'll go get that link now

Asking if you should get a high PR link is like asking if you should buy a car because you want to go somewhere. Where do you want to go? What is the purpose of your trip?

What type of link is it? Is it a text link from a related site? Are there a lot of other links? Is it contextual? Are the other outbound related links? Are there a lot of unrelated links on the page?

If the associated content isn't related don't waste your time or money it probably isn't worth a whole lot. Will it hurt? No but will it do anything to improve your SERPs? That depends on a number of factors not just Google PR. Forget Google PR and build your reputation within the community you are trying to reach with solid content that will excite people to share your site with others (viral marketing).

- Is it a text link from a related site? (Yes)
- Are there a lot of other links? (No)
- Is it contextual? (Yes)
- Are the other outbound related links? (Yes)
- Are there a lot of unrelated links on the page? (No)

The site is most probably going to get a lot of "natural" backlinks pretty soon. I just thought the PR7 backlink might help to get things going with the SERPs a bit. Do you think that in this case (text link from a related site, contextual etc. plus a steady flow of natural low PR backlinks in the near future) it would be reasonable to get the PR7 link?

I'm a little confused about why you think a text link from a relevant/related PR7 site might be harmful!

If it were, there would be a whole bunch of PR7 sites selling links to knock new competitors off of Google.

Obviously, a text link from a related PR7 page is a good thing.

A PR7 link from a related-topic page that is editorially given is a fantastic thing to receive. The only way that it can be bad is if it goes to your competitors site instead of to yours.

THE BERG pointed out already why I thought it might be harmful: "It would seem possibly unnatural".

I've heard so many bad things about people who got their sites penalized heavily without even really knowing what exactly they did wrong. So I just wanted to rule out the possibility that Google might interpret a PR7 backlink to a very "young" site as unnatural or even black hattish.

OK well - I see the "point", although IMHO it's a mighty thin one!

Links "seem unnatural" when you have a huge %'age with identical anchors, loads of links from unrelated sites, a high %'age of recip's, loads of links from a limited range of IP's, a "selection" of sites all heavily interlinked, links in "sponsored links" areas, etc etc
For many of these "unnatural-looking situations" there are algo's to "devalue/handle the situation", for others (and for on-site situations) they may be brought to the attention of the webspam team for investigation, but ( in terms of Google/SEO) nothing bad will come from a single link on a related (or unrelated) site, PR7 (or higher).