You may have already discovered that the more your back link is in context, the better it is for getting visitors and search engine optimization/results. Also, we're talking about Google and Google PageRank right?
So, generally, the following links strategies might be considered as 'beneficial', and listed in the order below:
- Best Back Link?: A link from another website's home page
- Better Back Link: Content Linking - a page on another site dedicated to your product or service with link(s) pointing back to your site
- Medium Back Link: Link on a ‘non-links’ page (i.e. a link at the bottom of a page NOT dedicated to links)
- Medium Back Link: Links Pages - your link amongst others on a page of RELEVANT links
- Worst Back Link?: Automated Linking Strategies - sometimes you don't have control over how/where your link is displayed.
You may adopt the following attitude and spend effort accordingly: The more difficult a back link is to obtain, the more it is likely to be worth.
What ever you decide, good luck with your back linking, because I'll tell you for nothing: it's not easy to get good back links! I'm not telling you anything new right? You should also keep in mind that Google PageRank does not directly relate to where you appear in the organic results.
Just carry out good back linking for real visitors and the search engines will fall into line!
