[thehen]

Okay I'm really confused. I've been submitting away to loads of free and reciprical link directories in a bid to raise my pagerank. I've now read somewhere else that it actually damages your rank being listed on such directories. Is this true?

I've also heard that linking to more external sites than what link to me is a no no. Is this true?

And another thing . . . I've been looking at link directories with a high PR, though my concern is that the actual link pages on these sites is listed as N/A or 0. Is it based on the page the link is on or the website itself?

I'm new to PR which is rather stupid considering I've been SEOing for ages. Bah.

Any help would be appreciated.

Also, where is the best place to look for high PR sites?

[webmaster]

This is a topic has been discussed very much, my oppinion is that links can't hurt, but it's possible that they don't help you. Maybe the search engines has 'banned' many of the link directories in a way that the links do not help you.

Search google for: high pr link directories
And you will find a few good link directories.

[pdacrandy]

It's possible that you have not been banned, but Google instead has re-evaluated your link popularity by changing their algorithm and determined that the links that you have are not relevant or do not count for anything. Google likes the "anchor-text links". In other words, if your site is about "Michael Jordan", then Google likes one-way links pointing to your website that have the keyword "Michael Jordan" in the link text.

So, for example, if my site links to yours, then the link:
<a href="http://www.yourwebsite.com">Michael Jordan</a>

is worth alot more than this link:
<a href="http://www.yourwebsite.com">www.yourwebsite.com</a>

[HarleyJane]

I also heard that Google was changing their algorithm to put less emphasis on PR, and make Link Directories count for basically nothing. Recently, they are putting more emphasis on age of your domain. If your domain name has been around for years, then you are going to score higher then a new domain.

I do the same thing with the link directories, and lately I've checked my rankings and they are dramatically different. I beleive that right now google is in the middle of another round of algorithm changes, and everybody is shifting around.... so we'll see what happens.