Anyways this is not a Update thread so don't post anything related to any updates please OK I had this thought this morning and made me think this: If people are on top 10 in the serps (Google mainly) why does people even care about PR? What's sooooo special about the green that you see? I currently have a site that's a PR0 bringing in extremely good money (No not Bill Gates money) but enough for my age. I guess I just don't get why the pretty green on your toolbar is sooo important to the PR lovers. I'll admit it's nice to see and all but to me people seem to think it's effective in someway. If my PR0 site can rank why do people go crazy over PR and not crazy over the money that they could make?
THE UPDATE!!!!!! OH NOES!!!! wait...this is NOT about the update? *phew* Actually, people sell sites based on pagerank and the more pagerank you have the higher your results. Yes, the highest will show up first, but in order to get there in the first place, you need to have people linking to you. The more links you can get, the higher your results, so pagerank is important even if you're not in the top 10 results -- incoming links from other sites. I know some sites that drive a lot of traffic with a very small PR while other larger ones drive nearly no traffic. I have a PR6 but it only gets about 400 hits a month. People do tend to focus too much on PR and not the actual content and ability of the site.
I dont care about PR, all i use the tool bar is to check if google has index'd the site and if has a cached copy. And since google only updates PR every 3 months, its not a good gauge of a site, your write being in the TOP 10 is much more important. My brother in law was so excited when his site went from a PR4 to a PR5 he tells everyone im such a great marketer, cause we got a 5 out of 10 so fast. It always give me a good chuckle when he mentions it.. People dont just focus on PR thier a whole industry selling you links based on PR
Good post fsmedia. When I look for link partners as well I even include PR0 sites as long as there cached. But with all these update threads going on I was thinking - WAIT if I make tons of money with a PR0 site why are people posting all kinds of fake update threads and getting excited for Matt Cutts to press the update button. I am in general not refering to site sales but mainly just sites you SEO for. What I am really trying to say here is why people focus on PR and not the real money making serps. Maybe they are but I just see way to many people demand PR or even with update threads. No offence to people who love PR - I just get sick of all the people who post PR update threads or demand PR7 for a link exchange lol.
A lot of people think that high PR means good rankings - which it doesn't. While there are many factors in ranking well, the most important is backlinks from related sites - with authority sites being even better. These sites are usually going to have high PR, so the important backlink to your site is ALSO going to pass PR. The PR isn't what is helping you rank well, its the link. Many times the top ranking sites will have a high PR - so people concluded that the PR is the reason the site is ranking well. Buying high PR links from non-related sites does nothing but increase your toolbar PR - not your SERPS. While the this high PR will not help you rank well, it will allow you to get better link exchanges because so many webmasters put a lot of importance on PR. You can certainly rank well with MSN non-related backlinks, but google is much more selective. I do not think you will find a top ranking site for a highly competitive keyword that doesn't have PR. They wouldn't be ranking without those backlinks, and with backlinks comes PR. It's entirely possible to make hundreds of dollars per day on a site that is a day old and not even indexed - that being said, it doesn't mean you shouldn't want to also gain backlinks and do even better with natural search engine results. Every site has the potential to do better. Many of the most successful people in the world (financially) are never satisfied with their current results - they are always looking for a way to improve.
I don't use PR to judge the site. You see many Microsoft sites being PR0 but they still make a ton of money. PR has no relationship with Adsense or YPN. I could have a PR0 site make $8/clicks.
No. Google doesn't give their exact formula, but your ranking (are you an authority site) and CTR are factors in smart pricing. If you had a PR3 shoe site and went and purchased a high PR link from a completely non-related site, even if it increased your site to a PR7, you wouldn't be paid any more per click.
mjewel you are very correct with your post. But with me if I had a PR9 authority link pointing to me I would like cool and not overhyped about it like I see a lot of times despite it being a powerful link.
If you use the co-op then PR updates are important to you as it's how your weight is calculated. I have a few site i'm running with the co-op that have had a lot of pages added to them since the last update so i cant wait till the next update, i may at last have a bit of weight to throw around
Also, some of the best directory scripts sort listings by PR in the default configuration (which is something I like). Therefore, sites with higher PR will get better placement (on pages with higher PR).
That the only reason I care about PR updates... Link Vault and Co-Op use PR to get your more weight/links. I agree though that people are WAY too excited about PR updates. I guess for the site/link sellers, it means that they can start selling off their product...
virtualkev & mystikmedia good points about that and PR. some times you forget about all the ways PR playing into websites
IMO, toolbar pr is important only because webmasters feel that it is. Anyone who has tried to exchange links from a pr0 page can relate.
If you have better PR then you increase the chance to be found by your visitors that uses keyword specific searches to find your site and product. So in my oppinion this should be the reason why you should care about pagerank. Also take a look at this post http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showpost.php?p=581837&postcount=11 with further information of the relevance of PR. Thanks to Minstrel for pointing this out in another thread. If you don't rely on keyword specific searches then you can afford to say ''Why care about Pagerank?'' but if you are not then i would advise you should care.
It specifically talks about relevance. Only PR that comes from relevant sites is important for keyword searches. If your PR comes from non-relevant sites, it plays no role in your rankings.
The number of link exchange requests I get will triple when my links pages go from PR0 to PR4. That's why PR is important, in my opinion.
Alot of webmasters use the google toolbar. Would you buy hosting, scripts, or even take SEO advice from a site with a PR0 main page? I won't purchase from an unknown unless they are showing some green, and given equal transactions, I am more likely to go with the higher PR site. Chances are they have been around longer, have worked harder, and understand what 'reputation' means. While you can purchase links that will give you PR, it is not that hard to figure out if they are all purchased, or if they are the result of an exchange or spontaneous linking.