Linking, PR and Google

Having read the forums now for a couple of months. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I now see that if my webpage is correctly optimized for Google I can improve the position by having some decent links - correct or not???

Some time ago I employed somebody and as part of their job they set up pages of 780 links see: http://www.cybertravelnetwork.com/links.htm plus there is an additional 100 or so waiting to be added manually.

If I am correct in assuming this is the right path to take to improve my position, is there an easier way to add links for example to use an automated program without spamming?

Someone please advise me?

Maybe someone can correct me if Im wrong but viewing your site I see that most our your linkbacks are a 5 PR which is cool but having 700+ sites with a 5 PR in my expierence limits your sites PR capabilities. I have found that having 20 solid sites linked togeather will allow you to control your PR better (perhaps getting a 7,8 or a 9 PR depending on those sites PR.(thinking that everything is averaged out)

But on the same hand I am also finding out the hard way that link backs and PR are not everything.

Something I am trying to get a better grasp / stratagy with is targeting specific keywords better. And really.... I think that is the magic to getting better placement.... limiting your keywords to a few key phrases and pushing those phrases in everything you do with the site. All of your linkbacks, text, meta tags, postings, etc....

I agree with BadgerMedia's last paragraph.

I have not heard anything about PR being averaged out???
I thought it took one PR7 link to give you a PR6 (PRx link gives PRx-1)

Im not sure the exact mathamatics but I know from reports I have tracked that if you have one 7PR and six 5PR sites your site is most likely going to be a 5 - 6PR. However If you have one 5PR and six 7PR sites you are most likely going to get a 6 - 7PR on your site. I havent seen this reported anywhere but Ive tested the theory on 9 groups of sites each group consisting of 20 sites and always seem to get the same results.

It's not that simple. I've recently spend a lot of time reading stuff behind PR formula and what I can say that it's nowhere that simple. What most of link hunters (including me at first) don't seem to understand that it's simple vanity to concentrate hunting links from pages that have multiple outgoing links. Each link on a page cuts outgoing PR to half. Thus, getting listed in PR6 page among 50 other names is not so big yahoo. I would more rather wellcome a single link from PR3 or PR4 site because it has way lot more weight.

I was thinking (not sure still working on) that if you had 20 sites linking with only eachother that the PR wouldn't "leak out so to speak" meaning that the sites would more feed off eachother and the links would be considered more valuable? At that point each site you link to only links back to the other sites you link to, 360 no holes, no gaps. Dunno just my thinking....

perhaps I have put too much thought into this and am simply confusing myself

You're confused!!!.....what about me?

cyberil: what key phrase are you trying to rank in and what is you current ranking?

My understanding is that the orginal PR calculation is an exponential scale, and includes a dampening factor.

So, if the exponent of the scale is 10, then 10 PR 5 sites would add up to a PR 6 site.

I also understand that PR is affected by the number of outbound links. So a PR7 site with 10 links would give out at most a PR6 (assuming exponent of 10). The dampening factor further reduces the PR spewed forth.

Finally, the PR you see may just be a calculated PR. So if you are looking at a directory, the PR you see for the page may not be the real PR for the page.

As this basic formula is known, Google probably adds obstacles to root out manipulation.

Only linking to your own sites probably increases your PR. I like to link to friends, because I like my friends. But the goal of SEO is to become part of the ruling class. The ruling class has no friends, they simply have air breathing tools.

well said