There are a handful of threads about page rank, how to improve it, finally having got some ... it seems like Google's most controversial invention. I think it's almost meaningless, but I really don't know that much about SEO.

My highest page rank page over the last three or four months has been
an article on soft focus, so says Google Webmaster Tools, but this month 15 other pages have been visited more often. It was the entry page for 1/3 the people who saw it, mostly from links, and not search. On the other hand, my portraits gallery has traditionally been my most requested page, and "SEO Quake" says its PR is zero. My next most visited are two, three, and zero.

I'm guessing PR is one variable in how search results are sorted, along with more important things like what the user typed in, and lots of tricky stuff like keyword density and what neighborhoods you belong to. I can see how people might take PR as a very rough gauge when you don't know all the other variables. But the goal is to have people stop at your site, and page rank doesn't predict that.

Thoughts?

PR wasn't important nowadays as many have told so but it is a way of saying the importance of your site...the higher you have the higher you site importance is...most webmaster link exchange with site's on their niche with higher PR as it's PR will leak on to your site once Google updated it..as Google will give some of its importance to you seeing that you're linking with a relevant, quality, and trusted/important site as so they see it...

REAL PageRank, the internal one which we can't see, have no idea what scale it is on and no idea what the values actually are, does get used (in the gospel according to Matt Cutts) in determining which page gets shown in the case where the ranking algo comes up with an exact tie for any position in the SERP.
This is more likely to affect pages in the lower ranking order than it would at the top end.

The toolbar display on the other hand. Well, if you use this for anything other than filling a space on the browser toolbar you are deluding yourself.

PR, An indicator Scale from 1 to 10 shows how important your website is.Consider the quality, Anchored IBL's help you rank higher. While PR is a formed out of IBL's. Thus PR is involved on SERPs.

Thats right! just like in politics if you have more money and you are popular you have a very good chances to win and rule!

Out of all the answers given, the only one that is even remotely close to correct is Hirst's (go figure.)

Toolbar PageRank is nothing more than an indicator, and an infrequently-updated indicator at that, of the number and quality of inbound links to a page (not a site as some people will tell you), which is based in turn on the number and quality of inbound links to a site (making it a recursive formula).

The only use that it has is to determine whether a site is banned (grey Toolbar PageRank), and even that's iffy because again, the toolbar is infrequently updated. Other than that, it's just decoration.

The best thing you can do with it is not worry about it. The only thing that you need to worry about as far as a bottom line is concerned is if people are finding your site under various keywords and phrases and if they're buying your products/services based on those phrases. The only place you're going to get that answer is from your site stats. Focus on that, and the rest of it will come naturally.

Originally Posted by jaguar-archie15

PR, An indicator Scale from 1 to 10 shows how important your website is.Consider the quality, Anchored IBL's help you rank higher. While PR is a formed out of IBL's. Thus PR is involved on SERPs.

See this is the reason most people think that PR is important.
They think that because backlinks increase serps and PR is caused by backlinks it must be that PR also increases SERPS. But actually the important factors of backlinks are the authority of the page on which the link appears and the anchor text used, Two factors that PR completely ignores.

People are superficial so when they see numbers, they want the best or the highest. Don't worry too much about PR. I would focus on making a site helpful to your visitors and you'll easily get links that way.

PageRank absolutely means something.....

If I go on a forum and say that I am selling ad space on my PR 0 website... how many takers would I get? I bet none.

Now say that I have a PR 9 site in which I am selling ad space.... how many now? And for what price?

PR means something to the people who put value on it...webmasters.

Correction: ignorant webmasters who don't know any better. People with a clue wouldn't bother.

The webmasters who make money out of peddling PR and misconceptions about it are maybe not so ignorant.

Hmmm. The snake oil salesman theory? Interesting. I don't know how I feel about that.

Originally Posted by memberpro

PageRank absolutely means something.....

If I go on a forum and say that I am selling ad space on my PR 0 website... how many takers would I get? I bet none.

Now say that I have a PR 9 site in which I am selling ad space.... how many now? And for what price?

PR means something to the people who put value on it...webmasters.

Ditto! I fully agree. I suppose the ones who think PR is worthless are the ones with a PR of zero. Can the system be fooled? Yep, it can happen but still it's better than nothing.

PR means something to the people who put value on it...webmasters.

Only some webmasters, People who know nothing about SEO. Just because some people attach false value to something based on thier complete misunderstanding of how it works doesn't mean it actually aquires that value.

Originally Posted by DotHQ

Ditto! I fully agree. I suppose the ones who think PR is worthless are the ones with a PR of zero.

Well your supposition is wrong. i don't have any sites below PR 4 and most are PR5, Do i care? not at all. Would i be worried if it dropped? Not in the slightest, As long as the things that mattered didn't drop (sales/conversions)

If i was going to be purchasing advertising space on a website the first thing id look at is how good is this site and do i want to be assosiated with it. Secondly i would look at it's traffic and decide if it's likely to send me targeted visitors interested in my site and what i sell, At no point during my decisions would PR be a factor.

It has been proven time and time again that toolbar PR does not increase serps and that toolbar PR has no other funtion that to move that stupid green bar up now and again. Anyone who still thinks it makes any difference is simply in denial.

Originally Posted by stOx

Only some webmasters, People who know nothing about SEO. Just because some people attach false value to something based on thier complete misunderstanding of how it works doesn't mean it actually aquires that value.

OK I'm dying to know: why do you use PR as a selling point for the PR5 directory you are advertising in your sig? The PR5 bit is even highlighted in a different colour to emphasize it.

Originally Posted by gringo

OK I'm dying to know: why do you use PR as a selling point for the PR5 directory you are advertising in your sig? The PR5 bit is even highlighted in a different colour to emphasize it.

I'm not going to stop them if they want to pay for a PR5 link.
I will take $10 for my pocket fluff if you want to pay it, It doesn't mean that my pocket fluff is worth $10 though.

Originally Posted by stOx

I'm not going to stop them if they want to pay for a PR5 link.
I will take $10 for my pocket fluff if you want to pay it, It doesn't mean that my pocket fluff is worth $10 though.

I'm shocked.

I don't think anyone would disagree that having a high PR site link to you will help get search engines to visit your site [correction: someone did disagree](at least faster than other methods)... but as far a revelantcy and helping boost your page in the search engines on a long term scale? I am not smart enough to answer that question.

Originally Posted by memberpro

PageRank absolutely means something.....

If I go on a forum and say that I am selling ad space on my PR 0 website... how many takers would I get? I bet none.

Now say that I have a PR 9 site in which I am selling ad space.... how many now? And for what price?

PR means something to the people who put value on it...webmasters.

Hey, that was going to be my answer. PageRank ( no space as per Google ) has one meaning. It's used to sell links to people who are gullible enough to believe in PR. Sort of like how beauty is only skin deep, but to a prostitute beauty is money in the bank.

Originally Posted by DotHQ

I suppose the ones who think PR is worthless are the ones with a PR of zero.

Your theory can be tested with a skill called "reading comprehension." The original poster said he has PageRank from 0-3, but that his highest PageRanked URL is something like #17 or #18 most visited.

Now, last time I checked, 0 and 3 were different numbers. Do we agree that zero doesn't equal three?