Its difficult to say on the one hand i would be inclined to say yes but i have had sites with no visible pr rank pretty well although it goes back to actual pr and visible pr again i suppose.
I dont think PR affects SERP, lot of low PR sites getting good search results. I think people's always like high PR sites. That's why high PR sites always getting high traffic. But there is a relation between PR and Back links..
yes there is a relation between PR and back links. If a site has many back link (Related to site theme). That site has always be a chace of getting high PR.
if you are back linked with other bad site, with out your knowledge and concern. ask webmaster to remove that link, I think that is the correct method.. what about you??
PR and SERP have relationship, but it is bit hard to understand. 1 good PR back link helps increases your PR,But not much SERP. But low few PR back links helps improve your SERP not PR. 1 PR5> back link - improve PR 10 PR1 back link - improve your SERP
PR and SERP are diffrent thing if you have higher PR then your webiste is more often index by google spider as well as importance of your page will higher. It bost in SERP is not 100% true becuase many website have 0 or pr2 but they are well in SERP.
I agree with you, but how can we get higher PR.. ? you need to tell the story from the beginning. It is not clear..
I can't believe people still are talking about PR as if it was 2 years ago. Look, for those who are new at this PR is like looking at a thermometer, it does not make things hot or cold, it only tells you what temperature it is. PR is a measuring rod for the site. The value tells you a piece of information that is useful only if understood. Yes, getting links from high PR sites will benefit you more than those from low PR sites. BUT, your own serps are not based on PR, but on all factors determined by a search engine. I guess another way to look at is comparing it to ONE of the dials on the instrument panel of a plane, it tells you a piece of information, but if you ignore the other instrument readings you will be lost.
The best but yet simple analogy I ever read. Some of my blog posts landed on the 1st page of Google Search and I was amazed that they sometimes overpower other blogs with higher PR as mine.
The last part is correct. SERPs are based on many factors. The first part is misleading and might be better said, "...your own SERPs are not based only on PR, but on all factors..." PR is clearly at least part of the SERPs formula, per Google: "Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results." — http://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html (©2008 Google)