Fake PageRank Exposed
Many search engine optimizers or web marketing consultants will look for other sites to exchange links with and the most desirable ones have a high Google PageRank which is a determining factor when ranking a website. The higher another site is ranked and links to your site, the greater the value usually is for SEO. When they find a site with a high PageRank that is willing to exchange links, most people would confirm that the site actually has high PageRank with a Google Toolbar or PageRank Indicator.
But be advised that the other site’s PageRank could be fake. The other webmaster’s intention is to fake the PageRank indicator into displaying a higher number when they actually have none at all. These webmasters are know as Fake PR spammers. What they do is send out a bunch of emails to sites throughout the web, claiming they have a high PageRank and asking for a link exchange. Once another webmaster agrees with the link exchange, they give you a link from that fake site and tell you to link to their primary site. This leads to one-way links to their main site without giving back much to the other site.
So, How Can I Detect Which Site Has Fake PR?
My best advice and quickest way is to just see how long the domain has been registered for. These types of sites often will be registered a few days or few weeks before emailing you asking for a link exchange. Sites that have only been registered for a short period of time will not have a PR of 5 or even 1. You can check the age of the domain and when it was registered by looking at the WHOIS database which only takes a minute to do.