Being an administrator of quite a few websites and the goto guy for many of the day to day operations, promoting and editor of many of these sites, I find myself shaking my head at many of the beliefs that webmasters have regarding aspects of their SEO and promoting of their sites.

Here is a thread from one my SEO forums which touches on the misconceptions about the Google PR system:

Member Post - Can anyone help me out here we have a google pr of 3 how do i get this higher i have already over 1000 websites linking to my site whats my next step check out our site? Thanks so much btw this forum is kool

SEO Pro - Don't put too much faith in your PR ranking. Yes it's good when you need to exchange links but don't expect to much from a higher PR. Better results will come from proper marketing and optimization geared towards your target market.

Member Reply - Your pr is also 3 im looking for someone that can pick up my pr to a 4 or a 5

Now disregarding the fact that his reply was condicending at best, he like many is completely off base in his conception of what PR means. So lets take a look at a few facts.

Heres what the pagerank encyclopedia says:

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, EHandler: no quick summary. Follow link. (by page A, EHandler: no quick summary. Follow link. (for page B. But, EHandler: no quick summary. Follow link. (Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, EHandler: no quick summary. Follow link. (or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."

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In otherwords you could have some of the most important pages on the net linkwise, and near zero traffic with a high PR... conversely you could have some of the weakest links according to PR and have a volume of traffic to kill for.

Page rank is really misunderstood. It isn't a clear, definative way to view a page as being "at the top" of any given search or even as a traffic benchmark. Take engineseeker.com vs netshoppers.com ; We both have solid PR5s yet engineseeker is ranked 3800 (up280) with an average of a 300/M daily traffic. Netshoppers is at 210,000 (D62,000) with an 8/M. We both have 5s, but there is an obvious difference.

Don't give PR more credit than it's value as a link evaluation...thats about all it is. Shoot for quality backlinks,targeted keyword phrases and PPC if you can afford it, you'll be much happier with the outcome a couple months down the road. You will see your sites PR rise with the quality of the backlinks that you gain. As your links go so does your websites PR.

I really try to post articles that are easy to read and understand with a ton of enjoyability and a hint of credibilty. We all know that he who retires with the highest Alexa ranking wins! or... gets a condo in Florida as a consolation prize. Can I have my condo now? :)