Pagerank DOES matter in SERPS!

..but pagerank doesn't matter in SERP rankings It's actually pretty simple why that is so.

Clearly backlinks matter in SERP rankings.

Let's say there are 100 factors relating to backlinks. You have stuff like page PR, domain PR, type of link (anchored, unanchored, image, etc.), anchor text (if applicable), etc. The list goes on and on.

Now, some of these factors might help site ABC rank for "XYZ" in Google, some of them won't. Some of these factors might help site ABC increase its own PR, some won't. Some of these factors might help site ABC increase its own PR AND SERP rankings, some wont'. Some likely won't help either SERP rankings or PR.

When you see a particular page with PR, that PR is created from the incoming links (backlinks). Depending on the factors of the backlinks (noted above), the backlinks may or may not help the particular page rank in Google for a particular keyword. BUT, you certainly can't tell that from the PR.

Again, what matters are the incoming backlinks, not the PR. Of course, some are too lazy to analyze competitors' backlinks, but that is their loss.

Got it? Good.

Put another way, looking at PR adds nothing to the analysis. Zip, Zilch, Nada. All of the relevant details/info are already present -- the backlinks. But, people "dumb it down" and say that PR is relevant, because they are too lazy to look at the real underlying factors. Its the same with people relying on easy "shortcuts" like Micro Niche Finder's SOC and what not.

Are red cars faster on average than non-red cars? I would guess the answer would likely be yes, because the fastest cars produce a disproportionate number of red cars.

So, can we say that a red car is faster because its red?

Tom

I have a ton of page rank 0 sites, with various high comp keywords ranking in the top 3. The funny thing is my competitors all have pr 3+ and over with more backlinks..... In my experience PR does not help rank.

I just learned that Matt told us AN answer, without telling us THE answer. As he said PR is important, and didn't say MOST important. Likewise, video #2, his blog ranks higher than his root page on mattcutts.com. Notice how he began by saying, "the reason is pretty simple..." "more people link to my blog, than my root page...". So is the PR of 7 on his blog, relative to inbound links? Possibly. Is that why his root page is only PR5 since less inbound links? Maybe. Regardless, he never said my blog ranks higher because it has a PR7 and my root page only has a PR5.

All things being equal, PR counts.

Site A has a PR 5
Site B has PR 2

Both are exact match domains.
Both have exactly the same content.
Both then build a fresh new page and target that page with exactly the same incoming links.

Which site would your money be on in ranking that page higher ?

And what we have here is another thread of Nothing New.

What would be new?

How about the relevance of Page Rank when determining SE ranking? If it's #100 - #200 of 200, it's pretty damn irrelevant.

Most of us can come up with numerous examples of sites with lower page rank outranking sites with higher rank which is pretty strong evidence that it's not a very relevant factor when determining a sites SE ranking.

How important is it? None of us really know. Should it be ignored, no, it plays a part. Should a person be consumed with page rank, no, it's not that important.

I also see what you are saying and under certain circumstances pr has no relevancy but under other circumstances pr and links are infact inextricably linked.

While many people have their own opinions on this, I think its fair to say that it IS the backlinks that cause a domain to rise in PR in most cases (links from high PR domains are better, right?)

I personally believe that having a higher PR can only help a site to rank higher when targeting any keywords, but to achieve that PR, everyone needs backlinks, untargeted included.

The two are a closer than what I believe many disregard.

This is my last word on the matter, promise

In these kind of threads we often hear "my site is pr0 and it beat a pr5 site"

Guess what, if these pr 5 sites actually targetted those keywords and were hosted in the same geographical region, they would easily beat you in most cases in the regions you wanted to rank.

Dont take PR so lightly, if they want to compete, they will at your expense.

As we all know, the data of page rank has not updated for a long time. Maybe some pages showing PR0 has the potential PR4 which has a good SERP now. Should we just say PR0 page (this may actually has PR4) can’t outrank PR4 (this may become to PR3)?
We don’t know exactly the page rank of the given page. PR is one of 200 factors which decide the SERP. I believe most people like to have higher page rank.

The PR of your own pages has nothing to do with your rankings. Its about perceived relevancy of the content to the search term and the links backing that up.

as long as you get enough traffic page rank doesnt matter.