This is a question that every one has a different opinion about . Some swear by high pr back links while the others prefer a low pr but highly relevant backlinks. I was kind of curious my self . So I decided to go explore my self .

I decided to build only relevant backlinks for my latest website project . I was building links from all relevant forums and blogs and adding content on a regular basis too. The strategy worked wonders and I was ranking for some really competitive keywords within a week . I guess that speaks its all .

I decided to take my investigation further , I posted a thread on one of the most popular webmaster forums to know other fellow marketers opinion on the same . I got some interesting replies

“ Having backlinks from un-related sites isn’t going to harm you but it will be a lot harder and most time won’t look natural to get a backlink for a Used Cars website in a Gucci Handbags blog. Also you have to consider that backlinks can generate valuable traffic so it is always recommended to stick to your niche.

Think of links as a votes: would you rather buy a car recommended by 10 friends that don’t have a driving license or buy a car that is recommended by 3 mechanics? If all 13 (related and un-related sites) vote/link for that car than it is a sure purchase, if only 10 friends without a license (un-related sites) recommend that car you should consider it but ask for a second opinion, if 3 mechanics (related and high PR sites) tell you to buy a car it is 99.9% a sure purchase. The search engines pretty much “think” the same way ”

” Links from high PR sites that are not relevant and do not have the keywords you want to rank for as the link text will NOT help your URL’s rankings… All they do is pass your page PR. And PR has almost no effect on rankings since it is only a minor ranking factor and only 1 of 200+ such factors. Other things like the link text of inbound links and the relevance of the page linking to your URL carry far more weight. The <title> and <h1> of the page itself probably carries more weight than the URL’s own PR.

PS: By link text contains targeted keyword phrase I mean either the targeted keyword phrase or some variation of that keyword phrase… some link text that would lead Google to believe that the page ”

So let me put it all in a nut shell . The main focus should be getting quality relevant links because it helps your site look more natural and also passes some targeted traffic to your site with the key word as anchor text . At the same time , Irrelevant high PR backlinks can also do some good for your rankings with the keyword as anchor text . PR 0 irrelevant backlinks wont really do any good , but wont harm you either .