How do high PR webpages pass on 'PR weight'?

[drmani]

I came across this situation recently, and am not sure how
it works - so thought someone experienced with SEO can help.

If I get a link on a high PR page (say, a PR-7) which has
40 links, 35 of which are to internal pages on the same
domain, how does the weight of the PR-7 page get distributed?

Will ALL 40 links from the page share the weight?

Or is it distributed ONLY to 'outbound' links (which means
the 5 links to outside domains)?

All 40 links are do-follow, btw.

Thanks for your feedback, and I'd appreciate links to any
sources which can verify this information, as well.

All success
Dr.Mani

[nokimchen]

i guess outbound links will carry more "value"

[TBInternetMarketing]

I wouldn't over-think it to be honest. All you need to worry about is getting high PR backlinks to your site. That's what I spend most of my day doing.

[paulgl]

In a perfect world, PR is divided equally among all links,
internal or external, that do not have a nofollow tag with them.

But the world is not perfect. PR may be divided, but worth is
another thing. For out outbound links, high up, contextual, relevant,
is best. Not all worth from a backlink is from PR.

Paul

[DamenRabat]

"Revenge of the Mini Net" has an entire chapter devoted to your uestion and explains it very well.

Just google it. It is an email free for download.

[thecableguy]

There was an interview with Matt Cutts that mentions that I think this is the one (at the latter part).

Google's Matt Cutts on Redirects, Trust + More - Whiteboard Friday | SEOmoz

But then again don't believe everything he says. Some people takes everything he says as gospel, put in months of hard work only to find out differently

[Jeremy Banks]

more weight to outgoing links, less weight to internal links that are in the navigation and sidebars.

[dburk]

Hi Dr.Mani,

According to Google's published whitepaper on their PageRank algorithm, the PR is equally divided by and distributed to each unique outbound URL. Internal and external links share an equal value. This is one reason that internal link structure is so important to effective SEO.

[drmani]

Thanks for all your responses, I deeply appreciate it.

I wouldn't over-think it to be honest. All you need to worry about is getting high PR backlinks to your site. That's what I spend most of my day doing.

Well, there's a bit more involved here - and I want to make sure
I'll be getting value in the way I want (pure SEO benefit, in this
case)

In a perfect world, PR is divided equally among all links,
internal or external, that do not have a nofollow tag with them.

But the world is not perfect. PR may be divided, but worth is
another thing. For out outbound links, high up, contextual, relevant,
is best. Not all worth from a backlink is from PR.

Paul, I get what you say about not all worth being from PR, but this
is purely a PR play for me, this time. From what you say, can I infer
that a link on such a page will have it's worth divided among all 40
links (even if not equally), rather than being passed only to 'outbound'
(meaning non-domain) links?

@DamenRabat - Thanks. Revenge of the Mininet was my favorite ebook
from way back when. Don't recall this chapter, will revise asap.

@thecableguy - Nice link, thanks. From that one, I found this:

Does the Number of Outbound Links from a Page Affect PageRank?

For instance, to conserve "link juice" and/or funnel it more discreetly, does it matter whether I have three outbound links versus two? In the original PageRank formula, yes, juice flowed out in a simple formula of Passable PR divided by number of outbound links. But nowadays, Matt says it is a much more cyclical, iterative analysis and, "it really doesn't make as much difference as people suspect." There's no need to hoard all of your link juice on your page and, in fact, there may be benefit to generously linking out (not the least of which is the link-building power of good will).

Now that makes things even more confusing, from my perspective

The discussion is however about PR of the page that's linking out, rather
than the one that's RECEIVING the benefit of such a link - which is the
point I'm interested in at the moment.

more weight to outgoing links, less weight to internal links that are in the navigation and sidebars.

Jeremy Banks, that's what I'm being told - but can't find any supportive
evidence to back that up, by way of official papers or expert SEO articles.
Do you know of any that address this specific issue, please?

According to Google's published whitepaper on their PageRank algorithm, the PR is equally divided by and distributed to each unique outbound URL. Internal and external links share an equal value. This is one reason that internal link structure is so important to effective SEO.

@dburk - This is what I've understood until recently - but the interview
with Matt Cutts above, and other things people have told me seems to suggest
it's becoming more complex now than that. Am trying to find out if there's
any current/recent update/information on this specific issue.

If this situation still applies, then any link on such a page will have
PR weight distributed over 40 links... but if it isn't, then snagging a
link on a PR7 with all internal links, and only 5 'outbound' can be a
major boost in SEO for my site. Hence my interest in understanding this
point in greater detail.

Thanks again for your time and input. If you have more that'll help
clarify my specific question, I'd be extremely grateful.

All success
Dr.Mani

[dburk]

Originally Posted by drmani

@dburk - This is what I've understood until recently - but the interview
with Matt Cutts above, and other things people have told me seems to suggest
it's becoming more complex now than that. Am trying to find out if there's
any current/recent update/information on this specific issue.

If this situation still applies, then any link on such a page will have
PR weight distributed over 40 links... but if it isn't, then snagging a
link on a PR7 with all internal links, and only 5 'outbound' can be a
major boost in SEO for my site. Hence my interest in understanding this
point in greater detail.

Thanks again for your time and input. If you have more that'll help
clarify my specific question, I'd be extremely grateful.

All success
Dr.Mani

Hi Dr.Mani,

Matt Cutts has discussed this topic on numerous occasions, including videos on GoogleWebmasterTools, his blog and interviews with industry bloggers. While he has been a bit cagey in his inferences, I took it to mean that linking out to external websites does not bleed your PageRank away from your website as much as it did in the past. He seems to be inferring that outbound linking, to external websites, helps your own pages in some way.

From that testing that I have done, linking out doesn't seem to improve your PR score, however it does seem to have a very positive effect on SERP ranking, provided you are linking to reputable websites. I speculate that linking out to reputable pages improves your trust rank score. I have heard Google engineers refer tio this as "Author Reputation".

It's well known that websites that link out to lots of reputable pages in a well organized fashion take on "hub" site status and they tend to rank very well in SERP. However, a hub site isn't going to necessarily bump your PR score

[drmani]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi Dr.Mani,

Matt Cutts has discussed this topic on numerous occasions, including videos on GoogleWebmasterTools, his blog and interviews with industry bloggers. While he has been a bit cagey in his inferences, I took it to mean that linking out to external websites does not bleed your PageRank away from your website as much as it did in the past. He seems to be inferring that outbound linking, to external websites, helps your own pages in some way.

Thanks, yes I seem to recall reading something of this nature myself earlier.

Maybe I didn't explain it clearly enough before, but my interest in this issue
is from the perspective of someone who GETS a link to my site FROM a high
PR page.

Now, what I'm trying to figure out is IF I get a link from a PR-7 page with 40
links (all do follow), of which 35 are internal links and only 4 others (+ mine)
are to outside domains, will the WEIGHT of the PR-7 page be divided among
all 40 links, or will they be heavily (or exclusively) distributed to the 5 outbound
links to outside domains?

In the latter case, I'll reap a rich reward by way of the link. In the former, it
will be a significantly diluted impact. Hence my interest in finding out how the
PR weight gets distributed.

Most of the material I've been able to find deals with similar issues like you
detailed - of how linking out affects the PR of the page that's linking out, and
not with the issue of how the page BEING LINKED TO is benefited, and to
what extent.

Thanks for your insights on this perspective, Don. I appreciate your time.

All success
Dr.Mani