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My understanding is that if I have too many backlinks from low PR (pagerank) sites, Google considers them to be low quality links and if you have too many, your site may even be de-indexed from Google: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-check-which-links-can-harm-your-sites-rankings

I've read that some people say backlinks from high PR pages can be helpful to your site. But what about a backlink from a high PR site with a low PR page?

A lot of sites out there have higher PR, like Best of the Web directory. That is, the home page of Best of the Web has a PR of 6. But if you drill down to the specific page where a site is listed in the Best of the Web directory, the PR can be low (ie. PR of 0).

Does Google look at the PR of the overall site rather than the PR of the specific page when it determines how PR is passed to your site? Or does Google ONLY consider the PR of the specific page when it determines how PR is passed to your site?

If Google only considers the PR of the specific page, then it's not worth listing in a directory like Best of the Web because the actual page on Best of the Web that links to your site almost always has a low PR. In fact, listing on Best of the Web be harmful to your site because you're getting a backlink from a page with a low PR.

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  • The clue is in the name " Page Rank ". There is no official measure of a "sites" PR. The term "high PR site" is just a misleading marketing term thrown around by non-tech types and to dupe the unwary.
    – MrWhite
    Jan 4, 2013 at 10:28
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    @w3d Actually, the word "Page" in "Page Rank" does not refer to a web page, but it comes from the name of Larry Page who was the inventor of the original algorithm. (Source) However, your point is still valid that there is no measure of a site's PR in general.
    – René
    Apr 7, 2013 at 20:38

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Google only considers the PR of the referring page, not site in general. This being said PR isn't the only thing Google takes into account when ranking a website.

In terms of SEO I'm sure as most people will tell you, you should try to avoid directories as much as possible, unless they are incredibly relevant to your business. If you're looking to build links then good quality content or user-generated-content such as a blog or articles will prove far more effective in terms of decent backlinks.

source: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/06/05/google-pagerank-what-do-we-really-know-about-it/

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Everything Jack Lockyer has said is spot on and to follow on from that don't get hung up on PR as it is only one of many things Google looks at.

For 2013 the smart money is on co-citation which is getting away from traditional link building and looking at who is talking about you and where without necessarily linking to you. Article below:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/prediction-anchor-text-is-dying-and-will-be-replaced-by-cocitation-whiteboard-friday

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  • Thanks Sandy! I took a peak at that article. I will keep in mind co-citation as I move forward!
    – Programmer Joe
    Jan 24, 2013 at 7:05
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I have the following points to make. See if you find it helpful,

1) The link-juice flows from Homepage to other pages in the website and also (through the external links) to the other websites/webpages. Although Google considers the PR of the Homepage, but gives it majority priority to the PR of a particular linking page.

2) In my opinion, it is not harmful at all to get a back-link from a low PR of any webpage whose Homepage PR is high anyway. But the page should be relevant to your site.

3) Getting a back-link from an irrelevant page raises doubts to the Google. If too many back-links come from sites whose contents are not anyway related with your site, then Google will degrade your site and also the sites which have been giving you the back-links.

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