Hey guys,
I'm so confused now. I found this domain for sale http://www.invest-in-real-estate.com

I clicked on the link and it has a PR3. That's very valuable. So I decided to check the backlinks through Google toolbar and through MarketLeap. Google found 1 link and MarketLeap found 5 links.

I thought that PR is calculated based on how many sites link back to you.

Please explain, I'm so confused.

Thanks in advance.

I wouldn't get too excited over a PR3..my site www.terryhoffman.com has a PR3 (though I'm working hard on increasing traffic :>). A domain by itself is only valuable if it is very simple and clear and one that people might type into their browser if they were thinking of a specific topic. Think..cancer.com or stopsmoking.com. But the domain you're thinking of buying does not strike me as one that people will type in on their own. I wouldn't pay alot for it. Plus..the domain by itself has no search engine placement or PR rating.

So the question is..do you want to create a webpage for a topic which targets specific keywords? If so..the domain is not the primary thing the search engines will look at.

Oh, I'm not thinking of buying this domain. It's just that I've been working really hard, trying to reciprocate links with other sites and I still have a PR0 site. This site has no backlinks and it's PR3.

That's what I don't understand. What's the point of building links than? Why not just spend $500 and buy the domain and not worry about reciprocating and spending hundreds and hundreds of hours on exchanging links.

I've been reading a lot about Google PR's, but this domain contradicts everything that I've read, learned and tried to accomplish with my own site.

I think the LARGE list of areas and neighborhoods you're serving toward the bottom of the page is actually not helping you. Basically the vast majority of words on your page don't show up with enough frequency to be considered important by the search engines. There are huge number that are .003%! Get rid of that list or none of your keywords will stand a chance.

Choose a keyword term that your home page will focus on..perhaps "Philadelphia Real Estate" And then use that term in the title, description and several times throughout the page especially including the headers.

I would assume the area you're in has some major sections. Consider only listing those on your first page as links to other pages on your site. Then create pages of each of those major sections where you discuss them and the neighborhoods in them. This also gives you the benefit of fleshing out your site. Putting EVERYTHING on your home page is a mistake. Think of it as trying to be all things to everyone and ending up being spread too thin.

Analyze the word count on each page you create..the keywords you're targeting should be the highest frequency.

Thanks for your advice Terry. I will follow your suggestions.

But my questions still remains. How does a PR work? I always thought it's the number of backlings that are calculating the PR.

Theoretically PR is based on the number and quality of the links into and out of a page. I wouldn't worry about it though. The goal is traffic..more visitors means more potential leads to work with. I know of sites with low PR but tons of traffic. I found out about www.localcharlestonsc.com recently..they have a PR0 for their home page but get 10-15,0000 unique visitors a month and are selling advertising space on their site to other agents.

Is your goal a high PR number for different pages of your site or visitors coming to your site who then contact you to buy or sell real estate?

Google only shows a small sampling of backlinks, MSN or Yahoo will show a more accurate number. Also Page Rank is updated every 4 months or so so the PR showing may not be accurate. Its not about the number of links it is about the quality and Trust factor of the links you have. One link from CNN is worth more than a hundred (maybe a thousand) links from other Realtor's websites. That being said PR is only one of about a hundred things Google considers for establishing position in the SERPs and it is generally considered to be a waste of time to worry about it. Content is the most important factor in getting results. Make the website work and make sense for your visitors and you will see results.

Just because you have a high PR does not mean your site will rank well. I had a real estate website that had a PR 6 but I wasn't # 1 for my keywords. Sites that ranked in front of me were PR 5 and even 1 PR 4 site. Page Rank really doesn't have as much value as it did in the past, so don't worry about it. Just concentrate on getting quality and theme related links pointing to your site.

Work on getting your website in some of the major directories like Yahoo and DMOZ (even though it hasn't been updating much lately, it's still a quality link).

If you want instant traffic, post about your services with a link to your website from Craiglist.org for your city. This is a great way to get traffic while you build your site and attempt to get rankings (which cant take months) in the search engines.

hmm thanks for educating