Originally Posted by homebizseo

Toolbar page rank is important. Google values PR. Google states that in many times over. The counterargument that PR is not important goes against all logic.

Toolbar PR and Real PR are two COMPLETELY different values. Toolbar PR is outdated, and when it eventually is updated, it doesn't mean a whole lot:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/whats-an-update/

Originally Posted by kenang82

Can pagerank of a website drop? If so, why?

PR can drop because its depends on amount of links pointing to your site, if devalued or banned, the website PR will drop.

Page rank is not important at all SE positions is the one bringing traffic to your site

I think it is not as much important as back links. Back links is that you should take care about.

Originally Posted by Leon Torton

I think it is not as much important as back links. Back links is that you should take care about.

PR is based on backlinks. What we should need to focus more is our site's serp because this will bring more benefits to our site in terms of getting organic traffic from search engines. To increase our keyword rankings in serp, it's important to gather quality backlinks with proper targeting of keywords.

Pagerank is not that important. Traffic and ranking are the deciding factors in determining if your SEO campaign is indeed working.

an interesting discussion, but I can not give answers because I also still a beginner.
thanks for the great discussion

Why is a site's pagerank drop?

Tweeks are made to the algorithm in % also the new influx of listings and re-clasifycation of listings ends up re-evaluation your pagrank. If you added content that weighs low you will suffer a loss in Pagerank weight.

Your page rank drops primarily due to one of two reasons:

1. Unfortunate change in search/indexing algorithms

2. Someone has outdone you in SEO optimization.

It is usually due to the latter.

You can rank high in SERP without PR but it is important for link exchange and selling advertising space.

You can rank high in SERP without PR but it is important for link exchange and selling advertising space.

If you do a check in Google you will find that the higher PageRank websites rank higher in responses. I haven’t seen a PageRank 1 site get better results than a PageRank 5 website. That’s the whole point behind building PageRank.

Originally Posted by DigitalExtreme

If you do a check in Google you will find that the higher PageRank websites rank higher in responses. I haven’t seen a PageRank 1 site get better results than a PageRank 5 website. That’s the whole point behind building PageRank.

Well, I see many times. In the SERP, lower pr site out ranking higher ones. Mmmm.. or maybe because it's related to your geographic location.

Page rank is most important. It drops sometimes because if your site contains duplicate pages or duplicate content in a pages as result your page rank will drop.

Pagerank is important, You can attract viewers if you got higher PR.. Yes, your PR can decrease if you did not maintain it.. Maintaining it means doing some of the SEO strategies or updating your content regularly..

Simon,you relly do a good job,but I don't agree with you that PR has very limited impact on the rankings.

for me sometimes I use PR as a basis for site analysis it is also a basis on whether your site is going up or going down.

Originally Posted by emofree

for me sometimes I use PR as a basis for site analysis it is also a basis on whether your site is going up or going down.

hmmm.... I don't know. When my page rank went down, my traffic went up

Originally Posted by DigitalExtreme

If you do a check in Google you will find that the higher PageRank websites rank higher in responses. I haven’t seen a PageRank 1 site get better results than a PageRank 5 website. That’s the whole point behind building PageRank.

Well,

I respect your words but it’s my practical experience, when my web site was PR 0 it was beating some PR 3 sites in SERP.

The whole point is Google always has updated PR’s in the database but it releases a toolbar update only once in a quarter.

Originally Posted by DigitalExtreme

If you do a check in Google you will find that the higher PageRank websites rank higher in responses. I haven’t seen a PageRank 1 site get better results than a PageRank 5 website.

Then your research hasn't been thorough enough. Low PR pages often rank higher than high PR pages. PR is not context specific, it's just one number. How can one number give an indication of where a page will rank for different searches? Answer: it can't.

Consider a PR10 page about apples. Maybe it'll rank #1 for the phrase "apples". Maybe it'll rank highly for the search "fruit". But if someone searches for the phrase "apple pie recipe" I'd wager that a page that details an apple pie recipe will rank higher than that PR10 page about apples in general.

Regardless of the theory, there is enough evidence in the SERPs to contradict your claim.

Originally Posted by baxy

I respect your words but it’s my practical experience, when my web site was PR 0 it was beating some PR 3 sites in SERP.

Then again, I'm more concerned about quality traffic than SERP

Perhaps it's a difference of focus.
My focus is on the result, "quality traffic" not on a particular means, "PR &SERP"