Is there an immediate change in your search results ranking after your page ranking is assigned or do you still have to wait for about 3 months to get out of the sandbox. This is a new website. BTW, how many times is page ranking done by google per year?
I don't believe the two are correlated. I just got a PR 5 from PR 0 and still not ranking for my terms (it's a new site too).
PR does not directly correlate to rankings (Plus PR is actually updated daily - Its the visual PR being updated right now) The visual update is every 3 or 4 months
Visual PR does not mean squat in the rankings. It is a good reference point for quality, but don't look too much into it. I have a PR7 internal page but my whole site is in the sandbox.
PR might or might not still play a part in the ranking algo - only G knows for sure. Personally I believe that it does, but the part is probably so miniscule that it might as well not. Visual PR is only updated every 3 or 4 months, on a date decided by Google rather than any specific frequency. PR is completely irrelevant when it comes to the sandbox. PR is also (sort of) not connected to the age of the site. A three month old site can become a PR7 and a 5 year site can easily be a PR0.
I'm a little confused then - I thought the whole point of getting a higher page rank was so that your website could bubble up to the top when searched with your keywords. If page rank has nothing to do with search results then what's the big deal? Am I missing something?
Page rank should get your pages indexed more often and deeper. Also, it's a factor of incoming links = which if you used anchor text should increase your rankings for the text in your links. So, it does indirectly help your search results - but it's not the only thing.
PR used to play a larger part in ranking than it currently does today. It's far far to easy to manipulate PR - which is why it doesn't play a major part. PR does do the following: 1) allow you to see that something you did was right 2) allow you to trade IBL's easier with less understanding webmasters. 3) allow you to sell links easier to people wishing to buy links in order to increase their PR. I do use PR as an approximation of how often a site is spidered. I know that a PR7 will be hit more often and more deeply than a PR0. I also have found that links from a PR7 will result in your new site getting indexed quicker than a link from a PR6. This was my experience and might not be 100% true.
A year ago a site jump from PR0 to PR5 with only 2 inbound links for a month (1 month after the site was put online). It took about 8-9 months to get in the SERPs - 2nd page in Google for not so competitive key phrase. I tried the same links to another site (related to the firs one), and it got PR3. For less time it got better rankings. I content is the knig and after that come the links Correct me if I'm wrong.
I see no evidence that PR and Serps are connected. However, what I find interesting is that PR seems to be the way value is assigned to a page in the webmaster community, eg link buying and selling, site sales, etc. I don't participate in link buying or selling but don't believe PR should be used for this, IMO. Once you eliminate that...what's it good for? In other words what does 'importance' actually refer to?