Hi All, Although I know that my knowledge of SEO is very little, I like to think that I know some of the basics. However that little knowledge I thought I had has just been blown out the window by 2 of my sites! Site 1: is a travel site, it has a PR2 with internal 1 and 2 pages, 4 backlinks in google. but is on the first page for a pretty competative keyword! Site 2: basic 5 page info site. ALL pages are PR3, 0 backlinks in google. No idea of ranking as I have just installed anylitics. so how the hell is site 1 ranking so well and site 2 have a good pr will little or no backlinks?
PR depends on the quality of your backlinks, maybe you have some great links, however are the sites new? If so you are likely experiencing the "google bump" in the serps for now. Keep on doing what your doing, build more links.
Google is very shy at showing backlinks. You should check with Yahoo for a more accurate backlink count. Also, you can register your site in your google webmaster accounts, verify them, and get the actual numbers of backlinks you have for each site.
Without seeing the sites in question I'd have to presume you either optimized the hell out of the sites themselves and/or they're new.
Abou your Site2, having any PR without google backlinks means the PR is fake, or should be. I have one 3 year old domain, no strong backlinks, not indexed in Google no matter what I did, and it still has PR5 update after update. Go figure...
Well with the second site, i bought it about 8 months ago the home page has a PR1 with 0 on internal pages. I totally forgot i had the site and then i was going through my server and found it, took a look and was quite suprised.
On your Australia travel website in your signature, try changing the text and domain name color to a grey, it may improve your ctr good luck