If I search google for - "dog training". The first website in the first position is -"www.uwsp.edu/PSYCH/dog/" with a Page Rank of 4. If I wanted to rank better than this site for the search term "dog training" I would have to have a page rank of 5 or higher right? So if I was to buy a link on a page that would give me a page rank of 5 or better I would be the first site listed under "dog training" And if I was to by a link that gave me PR5 or better how long would it take for my site to start showing up first. Let me know if I am way off base here. BTW my website is: www.onlinedogtrainingbooks.com
PR has nothing to do with SERP. You need more backlinks, from relevant and quality sites, with your keyword as anchor text. On-page SEO would help as well. Check this section for more tips: Search Engine Optimization
Your wrong PR has nothing to do with the rankings Just optimize the site fot that keyphrase (in title in meta tags in text use it don't spam with it) and ofcourse get backlinks with desired anchor text
Its not necessary to have higher page rank to top rank for your keywords.......many times sites having no PR or lower PR rank among top on search engines. Also do not involve in buying or selling links .....it may harm your site as it is violation of webmaster guidelines. Just do proper onpage optimisation and build quality links to get rank well........also try most valuable one way links for your site.
Content does matter. I had a quick look at the first site, and it looks like its pretty much a complete guide to dog training, that will attract lots of natural links from other sites. It's also pretty old, which counts in its favour (last update 2001!), and presumably means it has lots of strong, well-established links. Both those factors will count against you. The fact the other site is never updated may act in your favour if you keep adding new 'dog training' information to your own site - it seems that frequently updated sites gain some advantage. I would aim for the no 3 spot for now, and worry about number 1 later. As said above, get lots of relevant links, don't worry about PR.
this is so going to get mocked ! 1: harvest all the content from the top 3 sites 2: fragment it into paragrpahs 3: recombine to make new articles 4: post each article on 2/3 different sites, with key terms linked to you, and crap terms linked to number one spot occasionally 5: seo your own site 6: wait and see
Links are essential, forget PR, it's not related to ranking in any way. Since your competitors on #1 and #2 are really strong, I wouldn't expect anything better than a #3 ranking for a long time...maybe consider going for more long tail terms as well. Blacknet's idea is nice (and a little evil), but unrelated link text from related content won't hurt your competitors, nor will good content only help you with rankings.
this time I'll give my honest opinion - this is a single site you want to advance. simply put, make it a better site than the sites at number 1 and two, with more "real" content and better seo'd - use the blacker methods to simply top up the former, a few stumbles and diggs, the odd press release publised. Hard work can pretty much gaurentee it.. after all why should your site be above there's if it's not better?? *slaps himself*