Until recently, last week, I had a page with a rank of 4 listed at the top of a 23 million page search. I've never really had good page ranks but at one stage I was listed on the first page of every google search I'd targetted.

I've stopped google dancing now but in the past for sure page rank wasn't the most important factor - what seemed to matter more was the frequency of updates and the continual adding of fresh content, at least that's what I decided my success was due to.

I've even got a theory that about 20KB of text is about optimum for a page. Google seems to like that kind of number somehow. It's short enough to be readable online but long enough to be seen as fairly authoritive.

I've just got my first commercial lead - off some folks who only deal with face-to-face contacts, not web orientated at all, and know a bargain when they see one. It serves my interests anyway, so I don't care - I'm a "bush programmer" anyway - self-taught unqualified.

I won't care too much about page rank at all - I think I may have lost my top listing in part because of what I read about google yanking spam directories that simply mirrored DMOZ (google) - I lost 2 PR when they did that.

I think a lot of my lost ranks comes from not updating recently or adding much new content. It affects the frequency which google spiders your site as well. They stop calling if you start relaxing but google dancing for no pay is no fun at all and if you're uninspired how can you create content?

With my new commercial venture I'm going to build a monster site and just keep updating it. I don't know how central page rank really is. I know I could formerly get just about anything onto the google front page in the past.

you can also check PR without the google toolbar here:

http://www.prlookup.com/

I'm back in the crazy world of SEO again, oh joy! <--- I'm being sarcastic here.