Somehow agree, but more with (2) It is "one of many" ranking factors. That is simply from my own experience competing with sites having 3-4 points of PR over mine and still for my aimed keywords/phrases (which are also quite competitive) I do appear above them - outranking sites with PR7, while mine is 3-4...meant mainly my affiliate programmes.
I think everyone says PageRank doesn't matter is because people who think it does put too much emphasis on it and its a small part of it. Better to not focus on it at all and just get good links.
Google might have become concerned with continuous slide in the relevency of PR in the eyes of webmasters and so... it might be a fresh attempt to enhance its importance in the serps.... to get back people focusing on it! Strange has been the workings of google.... always! Regards, RightMan
I think Page rank is important much before now its playing role in ranking but not that much...I think so...
cmon, its obvious that PR affect ranking... the important part is that it's not all about that. For example, google "Dell Inspiron 15R" and you will see top listings from Dell website (very obvious) but when you search "Dell Inspiron 15R Review" other websites with REVIEW in title, description etc with a GOOD PR will go on top and Dell site on low. I think thats it to understand PR value as one of the reason for listing and not all. If you want another testing, post two similar articles with same Title, Description and Keyword density (these are most important) on two websites having PR gap of 2-3 and google it. Higher PR will get listed above lower PR.
PageRank affects ranking in some cases but there are more effective ways in choosing sites to get a link from than PR...
It is a wheel discussion. Actually, if you read carefully it says: "As many of you know, relevant, quality inbound links can affect your PageRank (one of many factors in our ranking algorithm)." Now, with just a little change of bolding and underline of the same sentence, everything takes a different course as you can see. What affects pagerank is actually quality inbound links. Tweak it as you want that phrase, but still remains the fact that: inbound links affect RANKINGS and Pagerank. No links = no pagerank = no rankings or.. no links = no rankings = no pagerank. As I said, you can tweak that phrase the way you best please, it's still those quality inbound links that do the magic.
I'd have to agree 100%. Ranking sites based on backlinks is how Google became so popular so fast all them years ago. Using natural, editorial links as a way to vote or give pages a "pat on the back", was and still is very affective. (before it was known as Google, it was known as backrub for that exact reason) I believe one of the several tweaks/refinements they made to the backlink voting system in the early days was finding a way to distinguish between good (trusted), and relevant back links. This would most likely be reviewed and refined quite often and may be the reason that newer, less established sites are prone to big shifts in the SERP's. Your confusing "toolbar PR" with Google's PR that gets used in the algorithm (which they do not show and is updated constantly, unlike "toolbar PR" which is a dumb down snapshot that's updated every 3 or 4 months). Toolbar PR is not an indication of trust or relevance. Getting several links from irrelevant, untrusted sites that have high "toolbar PR" may increase your "toolbar PR", but won't increase your sites trust. Cheers James
Yes I agree it might not be real live PR but then what is other alternate solution , Alexa of that site or mozrank or ??
I don't really think there is an alternative. Toolbar PR is the only "guide" we are given by Google... other than that, keeping an eye on your rankings and their fluctuations can also give you an idea whether your site is in good shape or not. Cheers James