I know a lot of people believe that page rank is no longer in the equation of ranking well, but I do not believe that. Why would google each month take the time, money, and resources to update everyone's page rank? Obviously page rank is still important, maybe not as important as it once was, but it still is important. Building backlinks to your site that have relevancy to your website are now very important, but also those backlinks should have a strong page rank. So again page rank plays an important role. I would focus on strong backlinks that are relevant and then your page rank will follow. But Yes, page rank is important. thanks.