Here's what I see with Google. In the first week of every month, they update "Your page with the highest PageRank." This is usually preceded by them updating backlinks. In fact, I always infer Google activity by watching these published #s: 1) Pages crawled per day. . .tends to be updated once or twice a month 2) Sitemaps. . .# of indexed pages tends to be updated every few days 3) Crawl errors. . .tends to be updated every few days 4) Links to your site Let's talk about #4. In my experience, when that updates, Page Rank and SERP updates follow. In fact, Page Rank comes first and SERPs usually a couple weeks later. So here's my problem. I have a PR2 site and a PR4 site that Google has not updated backlinks in 60 days and 30 days, respectively. I can see them actively updating the other stuff...but the backlinks haven't been touched. My pages indexed is increasing steadily, which to me seems like a sign of trust. Even newly added pages are being indexed in a couple days. But the backlinks thing is making me crazy. Literally, I've been on pins and needles, waiting for the backlinks to update, because that's when the chain reaction usually begins. I've got a ton of great backlinks in place thru hard work and I'm not getting credit for any of it. Please don't give me the mantra about Page Rank doesn't matter...keep building links...add great content. I'd rather believe in Santa Claus. PageRank does matter. If you want to rank for any competitive keyword, the SERPs are a declining list of PageRank. And PageRank is definitely being updated (published) either monthly or more at this point. Those people who say 3 months...did it dawn on you that you didn't change!?!? Building backlinks is a catch-22. Great places will link to you if you have high PageRank (are trusted). And lastly, great content only helps if you have visitors. And probably 80% of your visitors are going to come from search. Unless you've done something wildly unique or viral.
People don't link to you because of your page rank, though they may want links from you if you have high PR. People link because the content you have is relevant to their site and by allowing their visitors to leave their own site and go elsewhere they are assuming allowing the link is good for their own site, possibly raising the credibility etc. People, especially webmasters, will usually only link when there is something in it for them, general website owners though are probably more open to linking to other sites without needing a kickback of some sort. As for the back links update, Google will do this regularly, though the effect may not be publicly known for some time afterwards.
"And lastly, great content only helps if you have visitors. " really? shouldnt the content be enriched to GET the visitors?
I personally think that the PR changes all the time. The visible PR however, changes after sometime. If you get a quality backlink, then you will have to wait for sometime to get its value in terms of SERPs. A backlink cannot influence SERPs at once and the age of the backlinks are also the most important factor. So wait for backlinks affect is kind of a must thing for everyone.
I see the update every quarter. Companies work like that. Just like every town or institution. Shifts are 3pm -11pm, 11pm to 7am, and 7 am to 3pm. Pretty simple really. Keeps everything easy to remember. That's what I notice anyway. I could care less about rank now. Wasted to much time worrying about over the years.
Hmm, my advice would be to go out and enjoy the summer weather, let Google do its thing and revisit it later - I have a tendency to focus on these things as well, but its good to put it all in perspective.
these guys does not have any solution, neither do I. So we will talk about something else, that's how SEO works, how this industry works.
What's interesting to me is that the highest pagerank'd page is not necessarily the first one or two results with Google's searches. PR may be a little overrated when other factors such as keywords might be more important?
My PR2 site ranks higher on certain keywords than my competitors' PR3 and PR4 on the same keywords. Both sites are internally optimized. I think the only reason I am ahead so far is backlinks. Also, I have noticed that, at least in my case, of the dozens if not hundreds of backlinks, Google only shows 2 (I think they have to be PR3 or above to show up, but that's debatable), but they still have a direct affect on the SERPs. One thing I'm pretty certain of is that directory listings are absolutely worthless. I have never seen them in webaster tools or link:domain or seen any effect on SERPs. I suspect Google knows about most if not all the directory type sites and simply eliminates them in SERP results formula.
i read a SEO ebook and it does say that Page Rank is very much depends on backlinks from authority site with relevant content
Back link is one of the factor that ll be consider while PR creation. but that is not only the reason.