“As I have said before, these videos and other tips Google frequently gives out are worth paying attention to for any webmaster looking to rank well. Whether they’re talking about duplicate content, meta tags, or paid links, they’re all aimed at telling webmasters how it is, and clarifying any misconceptions to the contrary. Whether you agree with Google’s methods in all cases or not, the tips are for your benefit.

Like it or not, Google controls what people find on the web when they search. The company’s huge market share is just something that is. There is always the possibility that could change in the future, but at this point, it looks like webmasters are not going to be able to ignore Google for a long time, if they hope to be found on the web by searchers. ”

This is a part of an article from Webpronews.com by Chris Crum

Yep, I agree with that.

Back links is SOOOOO important, although quality is more important than quantity (as you intimate), but it is a coincidental side effect that back links improve PageRank.

So, as you say “Forget page rank…concentrate on quality backlinks with strategic anchor text.”

David

The single most effective SEO activity you can do is generate backlinks with well chosen anchor text. PR relied heavily on the amount of quality backlinks pointing to your site…and that seems to STILL remain the most effective thing you can do to get your site ranked.

Forget page rank…concentrate on quality backlinks with strategic anchor text.

I’m with you on that

The “ethical” part of me says I wish people would stop trying to push junk although there is another part saying that everyone who follows what they say is a weaker competitor!

Fortunately for my conscious and mental health the ethical side wins but that other side is there I must admit.

David

This is my opinion of course, but PR used to be of much greater importance some years ago but Google has been making it less and less important over time.

They have said a few times in the last couple of years that PR wasn’t as big of a deal and now they have taken a big step in saying “hey, it really isn’t important so if you didn’t believe me before believe me now!”

My thoughts on why it is on the toolbar is that it’s probably one of two things, politics (either some Google execs like it for some reason or there is pressure from SEO people to leave it on) or the development team on the toolbar hasn’t implemented it yet in a release of the toolbar (that isn’t a rare occurrence that different development teams release on different schedules and have different priorities even if there is overlap).

Why do the SEO people push it. Hey, they’re marketers and it is something easy to show and it has some history.

It certainly wouldn’t be the first time marketing types (yes, that’s us) have pushed products that were of, shall we say, marginal value to make a buck.

Personally, I prefer to be ahead of the curve and Google keeps saying it is not important so I haven’t cared for a while.

David

P.S. I think Google said it is only 1 of 200 aspects of their algorithm (not 1 in 120). Of course, they aren’t all equally weighted but from my experience and from what Google says, PageRank doesn’t seem to carry much weight.

BUT!!

If they have not removed it totally from their toolbar and or other places on the site it must still be used.

If it is not important then why are people all over SEO forums selling services providing links from PR5+ websites? Why have people created link wheels with high PR sites if PR is not important. It HAS to be one of the more than 120 aspects of googles algorythm…

Jason