“Page rank doesn’t matter†– I read that again and again on the forum. Of course it matters. Is it the single most important issue for webmasters? No, but it certainly does matter, for at least the following reasons. • Google says that it factors into their rankings, as in the following quote from http://www.google.com/technology/ -- “Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search…. Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search.†• An increasing page rank encourages you with the realization that your link-building efforts are paying off. And although much traffic comes from search engines, a significant portion of traffic comes from non-SE links. • All other factors being equal, higher page rank will make other sites more likely to link to yours voluntarily, often in hopes of a reciprocal link from what Google apparently considers to be an authority site (yours, with the high PR). So does the receiving of a higher PR matter? Certainly, because: 1) To some degree it has a positive effect on search engine results (per Google’s website). 2) It rewards your past link-building efforts and encourages more, in hopes of drawing more traffic via more links. 3) It will almost certainly draw the attention of (and hopefully links from) other webmasters.
Its not the end all for me, but i do check all the time when looking into linking partners. If a page has good PR, you can be sure that it was been around for a while at least
I love Page Rank. It lets me know how well I'm doing, how well my competitors are doing and most importantly, the best sites to get links from. I just hate the 4 month update waits. I think it should be 1-2 months instead.
Plus, one other benefit is that the PHP Link Directory (and maybe others) sorts links by PR by default (something I like). So, if you have a high PR, chances are a lot better your site will remain on the first page.
1) Indeed, To some degree, I own several websites, got one website with just a pr2 (shopping affiliate) with lots of traffic and a pr5 website (webmaster related) with unique content and the traffic doesn't come near to the pr2 website. The pr2 website is over 3 years old, the pr5 just 6 months. There's your difference, age of the websites. You could get a pr6 with a just couple of high pr links, but that doesn't bring any traffic. 2) I agree with you that linkbuilding is effective in getting higher serps for your website, but imo a high pr not a reward of my linkbuilding efforts, I'd rather see traffic. And that search engine traffic will convert into sales. 3) I don't believe that a high pagerank website will get links from other webmasters. And another question for you, how about the customers? I've installed the googletoolbar at my mom's computer, do you think she cares about pagerank? I have another website that's over 6 years of age, with a few backlinks. Serps for that website are fabulous. My summary: I'd say that age, content (unique), a specific niche, and links will get you to the top, but certainly not pagerank alone.
Nice post Jim. You should post this on highrankings forum, I have argued with the site owner JIL about this many times. Now your turn
Thanks, Kausik. But I'm just a mid-level SEO guy (at best!). I wouldn't ever attempt to cross swords with Jill. Maybe you could cut and paste it onto her forum and see how she replies. I have a lot of respect for her.