Page Rank can be affected by links, negatively as well as positively.
Links are an important website ranking factor in the Google Universe. The number of external links can significantly improve page rankings, but only if the links are of high quality and they relate to the subject at hand. There are many companies that charge a fee to produce links. For the most part, they are a waste of time and money, and can actually hurt page rankings. Arbitrarily listing a page or website on every possible directory and blog, for instance, is never a good idea. A car dealership that obtains a backlink from a directory of shoe distributors will negatively impact their page rankings. Backlinks must be natural, meaning that your page or website has complimentary content to the incoming link. Another consideration concerning external links is the page rank of the incoming link. If your page has a PR of 5 and the incoming link has a PR of 200, there is not much value there. A good SEO company will provide you with a report showing external links, the subject matter, and the page rank. Never hire an SEO company that is providing backlinks without reviewing each and every link they claim to have obtained.
Once you have obtained quality backlinks to your page or website, Google will take into account the Click Through Rate (CTR). If someone enters your site through a link and your content is relevant, then they should “click through” to another page on your site. Most analytics report this as the bounce rate. If 50% of the incoming visitors leave your site after only one page, that page would have a 50% bounce rate. The bounce rate indicates to google that the content on your site was not what the individual was lead to believe that it was. They will then reduce the page rank in order to make a search on Google more relevant to the content the visitor actually requested.
So, it is easy to see how poor quality links can destroy the overall ranking potential of a website.
CourseVector offers a Free SEO Marketing Analysis that will identify backlinks and provide relevant information on page ranking and SEO effectiveness.
For more information on SEO Strategy and Link Building check out Building your SEO strategy: what’s most important? on Search Watch.
Learn more about the difference between internal and external links.
