People pay a lot more attention to PageRank than they should and Google might just like the fact that so many people do. It gives Google a lot of attention and while people are concentration on PageRank, sometimes using unethical tricks, they are ignoring some of the many other factors that Google considers.
The most important thing is where you are in the search results and not how much green is being shown indicating your PageRank. Often a page with a PageRank of 3 can be higher in the search engine results pages than a page with a PageRank of 5, and it can be done without using any unethical methods.
The one person can be all excited because they have a PageRank of 5. The other person is all excited because they are higher in the search results and are getting more traffic than the page with the higher PageRank.
Google won't say exactly, but it is know there are well over 100 factors involved in the determination of where a page is placed in the search engine results pages. There are some thoughts it could be even be between 200 and 500 different factors. PageRank is just one of those factors. If people spend too much time with that, they are going to ignore some of those other important factors.
It often happens that a page with a PageRank of 3 can be number 1 for keywords while doing nothing wrong and pages with a higher PageRank and lower in the search results and not even on the first page of results.
What people should do is to forget about PageRank and forget about search engines. Keep their visitors in mind and make each page the very best it can possibly be. Make it so it will be a great benefit to the visitor. If the page is the very best possible for visitors, then search engines will like it as well.
You will also find that you will be getting links, without asking from them, because of the quality that you have. This produces more traffic for you and that is the important thing. It might also help you in the search engines.
As important as search engines are it is always nice to have other sources for traffic. Producing a high quality site is the way to get attention of people who will like what you have and will link to it for that reason. They like it and they believe their visitors will benefit from it as well. This is extra traffic for you.
You may go from a PageRank of 3 to a PageRank of 5 in a short time. You may even rank lower in the search engine results pages when you have a PageRank of 5 than you did when your Page Rank was 3, depending on many factors including what other people did with their pages, algorithm changes etc.
PageRank if something that might be good for the ego. But having a higher PageRank doesn't guarantee you will place higher in the search engine results pages or get more visitors.
The ideal thing is to concentrate on quality and benefits for your visitors. Strive to have the best pages possible and the rest will take care of itself.
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