Why is everyone saying that pagerank means NOTHING?

I've heard this statement a million times on this forum and it doesn't make any sense. Pagerank can get you #1 in Google if you combine all the other seo techniques properly. Having quality content and keyword rich titles and descriptions will help you get a top place in Google. If you want to get #1 for quality keywords you will need a high pagerank. If you don't have a high PR the only times you will get #1 is when somebody types in random phrases that are rarely used. The BIG free traffic is in the "quality keywords". For example, type in the keyword "golf" in Google and you will notice that EVERY website on the front page has a high PR. As you go down the list their PR gets smaller. This proves that PR is extremely important.

 

sorry but i disagree

on google.com.au i am on pages 1 or 2 for my
main keywords

even have good rankings on google.com

but i only have a page rank of 1 but am listed highter than PR4 sites

How?

Hours learning SEO

oh it was all done free too

 

Pagerank determines how many pages of your web-site are indexed on the first place.
Pagerank also determines if your page is in the main index or Supplementary index.

 

What people mean is that PR in itself does not guarantee better SERP placement, which is achieved through on-page optimization + anchor text. I could not agree more, PR, while overvalued, is the best indicator of "link strength", i.e., how much influence a link will have on the ranking algorithm.
This is still partly determined by PR, according to my informal testing, and anyone who doen't believe in PR can stay away from high-PR links.

 

If you're before a website that has a higher PR than you then that means you have more keyword rich titles and content. I have #1 for the phrases "wholesale sources tax id" and "legitimate wholesale". That's because I have those keywords in my titles, content, and domain name. There are websites that come after me that have a higher PR but Google finds my website to be more relevant. I would love to have #1 for the term "wholesale" but you will see that the only websites that have the top positions have high PR. The only way to beat them is to have a high PR myself and to use the keywords more than them.

 

BTW what are your mains keywords and what is your website? Maybe I can tell you why you are in front of websites that have a higher PR.

 

Page rank is only really good anymore if you want to sell links with pr.

 

Depending on the difficulty of the keyword and the amount of competing pages, Pagerank can play a part.
If you are talking about ranking a keyword of less than 5,000,000 competing pages and less than few hundred searches a month, then PR will not be affecting your ranking so much.

But if you are talking about ranking for some heavy weight terms with over 10,000,000 competing pages and monthly search volume of over 2,000 times, without a high pagerank it will be difficult.

However i do agree that PR is used for selling links too and it is just like Alexa ranking which buyers will want to look at.

You can try optimizing for long tail terms too if your pagerank aren't high. A matter of fact, my website is relatively new too with only a PR of 1 but i ranked many long tail keywords that i know my audiences are searching which now are on the top page of SERPs and bringing high traffic too. Longtail terms such as "how to get relevant link" "get relevant links" 'minimizing sandbox effect" "Minimize sandbox effect" and a lot more are currently ranking top 10.

Read my articles on optimizing for long tail terms that you know your target audiences may be searching.

 

I've seen a PR0 website rank 2nd on the keyword "car photos" for over 5 months. On top of hundreds of sites having PR4-8. It was all done through content and on-site optimization, not one single link in or out. That's when I started being a believer in the "PageRank is artificial" statement.

However, the webmaster used thumbnails near AdSense ads, which banned it from the program and also sent it straight to Google hell and off the SERPs.

 

It's one indication of how well your site is doing; but it's only one piece of the puzzle. So many people tend to focus on that puzzle piece alone, thinking it's the end-all of ranking high in serps. Which is why you hear so many people remind them with the mantra "PR means nothing".

 

Black Hat SEO could have sent it up the billboard in a short period. With 29,300,000 competing pages, i noticed that most websites on the first page of the SERPs is not properly optimized. Lets take a look at http://www.netcarshow.com/. This site ranked #1 for "car photos" but a deeper look at the site, i found that it is not properly SEO with poor onpage optimization but the fact that it has 441,000 inbound links brought this site to the top with a PR of 4.

Using black hat SEO techniques, one could bring a PR0 site to the top by making full use of the loopholes available in Google.

 

The webmaster of the site was a local aquaintance and didn't use blackhat SEO. The only unethical thing he did was thumbnail the AdSense ads, which brought him down both from the program and from the search engine (proof that they are related as well).

 

If your pagerank is low you will say it's not important.
Otherwise you look unprofessional

You shouldn't be too obsessed with PR either.

 

Erm... I ranked #1 for many long tailed keywords too and some is with over 30,000,000 competing pages such as "how to get relevant links" but i am only at PR 1. But for PR0 to reach top on "car photos" without any links would be..."you know"

 

True... You hit the nail hard.
I have a low PR of 1 but i always say it is important to get it high because eventually we need PR to rank high for competitive keywords

 

I've seen PR5s with an alexa of NA. One of my sites is top 10 for a 2 word keyword with just over 5,500,000 competition when in quotes with a PR2. I know there are alot more compediative terms than this, though.

I think PR was much more meaningfull before the last update.

 

You are confused

I have a pr3 site ranking for a very competitive keyphrases a site with PR7 I rest my CASE

PR is juist a number nothing else

 

PR only comes into play in the SERPs when all other SEO factors are the same. If two sites are equal for all other factors, the higher PR will rank higher. However, overall the PR has little bearing on where you are placed at in the SERPs. The reason you see many sites on top with high PR is because they have spent the time doing SEO for that site. Good SEO will normally result in higher PR and that is why you are confused and assume the other way around.

 

I can understand why you wouldn't believe me. I'll ask my friend, he might have some pictures taken. Btw, I'm not talking about some glitch in the SERps that lasted 1-2 days, I'm talking months. He made good money until he got banned ^^

Edit: P.S. By no links I meant he didn't get into any link exchange schemes, link buying and the likes. He didn't have any external links either. We didn't check if he had any natural IBLs because we were very unexperienced back then. Begginner's luck I reckon

 

I just searched "SEO" in google.com and found a PR3 on the front page!