There's still one thing that is not clear to me... what is PageRank used for? We know it's to "assess Google's opinion on a certain page" but that means nothing... what is it used for in PRACTICAL terms? does a page with high PageRank appear first in search results, other factors being equal?
PageRank and serp are not related in any way. When you see a site with a high PageRank that means that google respects that site. A site with a higher PageRank will usually get crawled more often than a site with a lower PageRank, that's one of the benefits of having a high PageRank. Having a high PageRank is also important for people who sell text links because the higher the PageRank the more money the link is worth.
I agree with you. Page rank has no direct relation to rankings but it helps your site to get crawled frequently by spiders.
Doesn't Google "forbid" selling links if not with the nofollow attribute? After all, this pagerank doesn't look that much important at all... but how come it doesn't influence SERP? if google thinks a page is valid, shouldn't they put it in the first results? So the fact it doesn't influence it means I could be first for any given keyword even with a PR0 site, and SEO is all that matters here? What are the other factors infleuncing SERP? thanks
A page with high pagerank is supposed to be strong candidate in Google search index. Google will always crawl these high pagerank website very often compare to low pagerank site. Though there is no guarantee that the post from high pagerank will be on top, but if you are being index fast, it means you are being put in Google fast, so definitely makes sense.
If you are selling Links then PR does matter else .. PR is nothing but a cool green star on your site ! People love to see extented green bar on their site as some people have a PR fever ! Regards, MB
If you have a site with good PR... You can get back link from high PR site means you can have Reciprocal LE with high PR.... And also increase SERP of your site!!!! -CD
Google generates a pagerank purely from the amount of links, but mainly the quality of the links - quality being similar content and good pagerank from that site. If you can get 100 000 people to link to a web design site saying "web design" on the link, you probably won't need to optimise your site that much. Links hold a hell of alot of weight, but they must be keyword rich, and suit the content on the website.
And if one wants to sell a website, then too PR is considered and regarded as an important factor. Of course, search engine ranking cannot be ignored too. So PR is sort of medals of performance. But these medals don't stay long if the performance of a particular site drops.
Page Rank is all about respect, whereas SERPS is all about promotion. I think the main benefit of page rank is mainly for publicity reasons so that sites can say how great their page rank is. personally i don't value it very highly, but i clearly can make a difference in some search results