PR and link exchanges

[pokertramp]

Is it harmful to link to a PR0 or PR1 or is it more harmful to have a PR0 or PR1 link to you with a PR2 or PR3?
In other words, If I'm doing 3 way exhanges, and my site is PR2 or PR3, is it better for me to link to the PR1 site or have the PR1 site link to me? Or should I avoid PR1s all together?

[universal4]

Pretend the google toolbar doesn't show that little green bar.

Then ask, is it ok to link to a quality site with decent content and in the same verticle as you?

Does the anchor text match the page it is linking from well, and does the link point at a page that matches the anchor text well?

Then ask is it ok to get a link from a quality website with decent content?

Does the anchor text match the page it is linking from well, and does the link point at a page that matches the anchor text well?

Rick
Universal4

[pokertramp]

Thanks Rick, that makes sense, so it also answers the question that PR really doesn't mean much. I mean, I have seen sites that didn't deserve some PRs and the reverse as well. I have some content packed sites with decent incoming links, that won't go over a PR2 as well...it doesn't make much sense but unfortunately everyone looks at PR and not the actual site.

[webber286]

As Rick said, avoid worrying about PR. Too many webmasters fall into the trap of thinking that PR is the currency to trade links with. I had a link exchange offered to me from a PR 5 website today, but I noticed that the site has no traffic (as reported by compete.com) and no rankings for the keywords they were targeting. Then looking at the links coming into the site, they were all coming from unrelated spammy looking domains. This is exactly the type of site you should avoid linking too since there is a good chance they will be penalized or even banned by Google at some point in the future.

Regarding links in general, there really are no bad backlinks (links that point to your website). The only thing you need to be worried about is linking out to a bad site since the SEs don't like that.

[pokertramp]

Thanks very much!