Going about it the wrong way?

[wozza]

I think everyone is getting sucked into this Page Rank void buying high ranking links thinking that a high page rank is how you get the high search results.

Think again

Every single page you see ranked in the top one to ten search results is actually listed on Google Directory (Im taking for broad popular terms here)

Thats where your effort should be focused

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by wozza

I think everyone is getting sucked into this Page Rank void buying high ranking links thinking that a high page rank is how you get the high search results.

People are buying links for PageRank. They buy them for anchor text.

Originally Posted by wozza

Every single page you see ranked in the top one to ten search results is actually listed on Google Directory (Im taking for broad popular terms here).

Not true.

Originally Posted by wozza

Thats where your effort should be focused.

Um, no. Anchor text is King.

[wozza]

I cant seem to find a single listing under website promotion or search engine optimization that isnt in google directory

google directory classifys a website as relevant to certain terms

google directory listings are always above other listings in every major keyword field

Prove me wrong with a broad term example where a web page listing is 1st place and a google directory website listing is second place

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by wozza

I cant seem to find a single listing under website promotion or search engine optimization that isnt in google directory

google directory classifys a website as relevant to certain terms

google directory listings are always above other listings in every major keyword field

Prove me wrong with a broad term example where a web page listing is 1st place and a google directory website listing is second place

A lot of sites ranking top ten for "search engine optimization", "internet marketing", and "search marketing" aren't listed in DMOZ/the Google Directory.

internetmarketinginfo.com
searchenginestrategies.biz
marketingfind.com
enhance.com

Really, the DMOZ listing is just a link. A lot of top ranked sites have DMOZ listings because they have dilegently promoted their sites; but top ranking can be achieved without DMOZ.