Backlinks embedded in posts or backlinks in sidebar?

[BloggerGuy]

What's better? A backlink to my site, embedded into a blog post/article? Or a hardlink in the sidebar?

The problem with links embedded inside articles, is that when the blog linking to me, gets updated, the articles disappear from first page and I lose the link from home page. How do you deal with this?

I also read this: "The best link you can get is from a site ranking #1 for the keyword you want to rank for. It would be great to have the #1 site for a desired keyword linking me even if they are a PR 0 site."

Is this right?

Thx in advance.

[BloggerGuy]

Thanks Takeshi Young and seom2014.

[seom2014]

Sidebar links are site-wide links and counted in every post that's not good, its like making widget or getting sponsorship of website. You just have only 5 to 10 percent of links that added in sidebar. (Its better to add nofollow attribute to these links).

Link from in text of article is more important then side link. Its better to rank your site to get link from article in text, then getting link from site bar.

[TakeshiYoung]

I would say in general links from within a post/article carry more weight than sidebar links. Sidebar links have been devalued quite a bit by Google, and with Penguin you could even potentially be penalized for a sidebar link on a site with thousands of pages. With that being said, I would not turn down a sidebar link from a high authority site if offered one.

PR can be deceptive because it hasn't been updated in nearly a year. So a site can still be high quality even if the toolbar PR shows a 0. It's always nice to get links from sites that are already ranking for your keyword, but make sure to do a thorough backlink analysis first to make sure they aren't spamming their way to the top. If the #1 result is using black hat tactics, it could take your site down with them when they inevitably get penalized down the line.