We have been building our backlinks for quite some time now but it seems like getting PR5 is harder than we thought. How many backlinks must you need exactly, and how long does it usually take? Is there a chart or mathematical equation that will tell us an estimate? Our url is www.jvfconsulting.com
As your PR increases it gets progressively tougher to increase your PR more. It would speed things up if you could get links from very high PR pages (PR6-8). If you just keep building backlinks as you are doing now, you should eventually get to PR5 but it may take quite a while. It is not worth obsessing over the PR though. Focus more on improving search engine rankings and getting more traffic. Things like that matter much more than an arbitrary Google toolbar number. There isn't any kind of equation or exact number of links you need to jump to PR5. It isn't just about number of backlinks, but also the PR of those backlinks.
You might already have a PR5. You have two numbers for your PR: The one displayed in your PR checker which only gets updated 4x's per year & Your real PR... which may already be a PR5.
What I have found and heard some professional SEO's is that once you hit PR4-5 then to gain above that you will need to start getting more authority links that are PR4 and above that the article marketing and directory submissions will do basically nothing once you hit that PR number.
I grabbed a PR of 5 within three months of launching a new site. Only obtained about three hundred total links, many of them repeated links from forum posts. But the things that brought me the high page rank were: Finding legitimate ways of commenting on a couple of .edu sites. For instance, some academics keep blogs and allow comments. Make a thoughtful comment on one of these page rank 5 or 6 edu site blogs and get a backlink and this will help you enormously. Also - commenting on high page rank forums. There are a slew of them which are webmaster related. You can easily, legitimately, place posts on these as a new member and put a backlink in your signature. Just join in the conversation for real so you're not spamming. To make the jump to PR5 it's about obtaining laser targeted links from page rank 5 and higher forums and edu sites. Dan
Worry about your rankings in the SERPS and not pr. Spending time worrying about PR is just a waste of time. If you think PR has a big effect on SERPs, the do a google search for lingerie. The #2 site bodylingerie has a PR2, yet the largest lingerie seller in the world, Victorias Secret has aVERY strong PR 6 but is #12-14. PR is a waste of time...If you like to see a little green bar, I suggest visiting a bar on St. Patties Day
It took me about 8 years to get PR5. Then, I lost it about a half-year later when Google's algo changed.
Good job with the PR4, however it gets much more difficult the higher you go. Just keep building links using higher authority and perhaps focus too on broadening your keyword reach.