In SEO forums we often see the anti-PageRank crowd claiming that PageRank means nothing in regard to search engine rankings, even on Google. One blaring example of this is found in the search for
Internet Marketing. The number two position is held by internetmarketinginfo.com, with a paltry PR6.
On the other side of the fence,
PR lovers can often point out some super competitive keyword phrases where the top positions are all held by PR8's and higher. And, you won't find a PR3 in the top for pretty much
any worthwhile search term.
Part of the equation is of course that PageRank is not the only factor in determining rankings. Page titles, body copy, anchor text of IBL's - these are also factors in rankings.
But the problem I see is this. Site-wide links, such as the links that we buy from the Internet.com network, will increase PageRank without necessarily increasing ranking to the same degree.
Or, let me put it this way. Link building is indeed the way to top rankings. Getting links with the right anchor text is the key to SEO.
But - here's the secret - it's not the number of links per se, but the number of unique domains and IP's that are linking to you.
Why does internetmarketinginfo.com outrank many other sites with higher
PR? Let's look at the backlinks.
www.internet-marketing-research.net PR8
19,100 backlinks
In DMOZ : Yes
In Yahoo: Yes
Unique linking domains: 13 (Out of top 1,000 reported backlinks)
www.internetmarketinginfo.com PR6
536 backlinks
In DMOZ : No
In Yahoo: No
Unique linking domains: 349 (Out of top 1,000 reported backlinks)
PageRank-wise, Internet-Marketing-Research.net blows the other out of the water. But the other has a mostly single links from many, many unique domains.
It's not about PR. It's about anchor text links from unique IP's.