Everybody is using it, but (almost) nobody really knows how it works. Google PageRank is probably one of the most important algorithms ever developed for the Web. With billions of existing pages and millions of pages generated every day, the search issue in the Web is more complex than you probably think it is. PageRank, only one of hundreds of factors used by Google to determine best search results, helps to keep our search clean and efficient. But how is it actually done? How does Google PageRank work, which factors do have an impact on it and which don’t? And what do we really know about PageRank? In this article we put the facts straight. Big article so you will have to go to the page to read full article: http://www.ayitinou.com/article-posts/923-search-engine-optimization-seo/239-google-pagerank-what-do-we-know-about-it.html
And what do we really care about it. If Google is devaluing it by removing it from webmaster tools and saying things like "pagerank is for entertainment only" then why should we care?
We only know very little about the pagerank algorithm. Matt Cutts has said that there are more than 200 factors in the pagerank calculation algorithm. You can read about it all here: The criteria for ranking is based on more than 200 factors as said by Matt Cutts. You can read about the 200 factors here in this thread: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4030020.htm
I dont think that PR is too much important, many good websites with useful information from long time still have not any pagerank, and many domain which is not have anything have PR,
Pagerank is definitely overrated and should be used as a minuscule tool for identifying website quality. You can have the best website in the world but no backlinks, therefore no PR. Ideally, high authority, high quality, and highly popular sites will have the highest PR so therefore if you have a high PR then you must be with them, right? No, you still won't receive the same amount of traffic and Google won't just place you on the first page and put you in a high chair. I see many results that have a higher PR site being beaten by a lower PR site. For example, a PR 3 website being beaten by a PR 1 website.
Page Rank is usually achieved by writing articles on your blog and having a lot of pages. It can also be achieved by the quantity and quality of your backlinks. I think domain age takes a part in this as well.
I think proper Seo of any site is what you need. They change page rank and how they rate it so just worry about site and get links back you should do fine.
There seems to be a relationship on this forum between people who make two or three dollars a day with adsense and the chasing of pagerank. Stop worrying about PR...
This topic has been discussed so many times and I find it very very funny that even after all the debates that even the OP still doesn't understand what they are talking about. Totally incorrect. Page ranks IS what those 200+ factors are being used to determine. It is not one of those factors, it is the result of all of those factors being considered to product a result. Here's the summary. There are 2 types of pagerank. First there is the toolbar pagerank (TPR). This is what most people on this thread are trying to comment on. Yes TPR is a useless metric that Google is devaluing. However there is also algorithm pagerank (APR). This is what is used to produce SERPs. Without APR Google is nothing. It is the way that the algorithm works to determine where a site should be listed in a result page. And if you're trying to get onto the first page of Google search results then in actual fact you are chasing pagerank. Just not the same pagerank as you might see on your toolbar. So is Google's pagerank important? You bet it is. At least APR is. APR is the foundation of Google search and is what has made the company the behemoth that it is today. However if you spend your days chasing TPR, then you're wasting your time. APR changes constantly whenever, a new page is indexed and compared to all other relevant indexed pages. Not something that you can keep up with considering the number of new pages indexed every minute and you certainly won't be seeing this reflected on your TPR.
Page rank works depending on the quality of the links that you build. For me SERP's are more important than PR.