Thanks to all the regulars

[cspence]

:o First I want to say thanks to all the regulars on this site. You guys have been a tremendous help to me.

:confused: My question this time is about link popularity and PR. Like many others, I'm starting my company on a non-existant budget and have been in the trenches fighting it out to get good rankings. I've done "so-so" in Yahoo and MSN (nothing to write home about) but Google has stumped me.

I've managed a PR 5 (according to the Toolbar) which is respectable but I need at least a PR 7 to compete. I am considering buying a couple of PR 8 or 9 links to give me that extra push. Is this a good or bad idea? What do I need to watch out for?

If it is bad then does anyone have any suggestions on how I can get me pr up there? The biggest problem I have is I can't afford to "_________" (you can fill in the blank). I've tried to exchange links with high pr site but have had no luck.

[glengara]

Regulars seem busy, so....

Few of your 9000+ pages are cached so it might be some indexing problem.

*What do I need to watch out for?*

Apart from your heavily interlinked network, you're also running a near identical site http://www.fastapartments.net/ , not the wisest move, IMO.

[Marketing Guy]

PR isnt a huge factor in ranking - I rank no.5 out of 140 million results with a PR6 (in amongst PR7, 8 and 9's). So don't worry about trying to get x, y or z PR. There are so many free directories out there I wouldn't even consider buying a high PR link unless the link was also from a high traffic page and the link was in a prominent position (read: advertising value over PageRank).

As Glengara points out, you may have more pressing issues preventing you gaining decent traffic levels - there's no point pushing your marketing efforts until your site is ready - all the inbound links / PR in the world won't help if SE's can't index your site, or you have other tech related issues (duplicate content for example).

With regards link popularity I would consider to be of less value these days (compared to what it once was) and a little more emphasis on quality link growth - that is the rate at which you gain inbound links. In simple terms, doing a hard push within a short period of time might not be the best long term strategy.

Real estate is a very competitive area - expect a lot of the competition to be well SEO'd - I would suggest refocusing your strategy slightly.

Presumeably your long term goal is money - focus on ways to achieve that. Yes, organic search is part of that. And links are a part of the organic search facet. But there is so much more! ;) Have a read of this for some freebie marketing ideas (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=5624).

Overtime your site will establish itself and naturally gain popularity (both link and consumer!) - while you can certainly include inbound linking within your remit, I would avoid focusing on it - it's a vague and everchanging area and can easily consume your time or even turn round and smack you in the face if something goes wrong! ;)

MG