Does Page Ranking really affect your placement in google

[dante_casablancas]

Hello people,

Hi pretty new to the SEO game and first time posting a question here. I have one question that has baffled me ever since I started paying attention to google's page rank system. How come there are some pages placing first in the google search results ahead of other pages with higher page rank. There have been a lot of cases, where the first place page does not even have a rank and it is placed number one ahead of a page that has a page rank of 6. I would greatly appreciate your comments ladies and gents.

Thanks

[rlrouse]

Google PageRank has less to do with ranking well in the SERPS for a specific keyword/phrase than inbound links and on-page factors.

PageRank is used more or less as as a "tie-breaker" when all other factors are pretty much equal (which they rarely are).

If the search results were ranked strictly according to PageRank, Google and the other PR10 sites would come up first for every single search.

[dante_casablancas]

Thanks Rouse, I still have a lot of learning and knowledge to ingest. I don't want to offend anybody, but before I started learning all this stuff, I thought that the only thing a website needed was a good design. As I fancied myself, and I re-iterate on the past tense, I thought that SEO and maximizing SERP's were for techies and number crunchers who were obsessed with gathering and organizing data. But all the while, for some crazy notion I am really enjoying the ride. What I found was that trying to maximize your SEO can give the same inspirational and creative high as putting together a good design. The same logic and principle are there. There definitely is a science behind it, and I am definitely in there in unravelling the mysteries behind SEO's, or at least be there for the journey. I have a little cause to be satisfied today. The first site I have ever tried to optimize just got a NUMBER ONE rank in Google. Thanks for all the tips, information and ideas that everyone has posted on this site. I will try my best to keep up and give input my own. Thanks again Rouse for the input and for taking the time to enlighten a lost one like me.

[simonm]

In normal times I would totally agree with rlrouse, however in these times of the "twilight zone", zombies walking the streets and the world coming to an end - perhaps its not quite that bad. For certain search terms Gogle has placed an exceptional reliance on page rank over and above inbound context links and page optimisation.

We need Scroogle the Google slayer to save us.

[rlrouse]

For certain search terms Gogle has placed an exceptional reliance on page rank over and above inbound context links and page optimisation.

I agree, but it's only temporary (trust me on this one). Keep building your pages using solid, ethical SEO techniques and you'll be rewarded sooner rather than later. Google made a mistake. They'll fix it.

[janeth]

I agree with rlrouse

I think the problems with Google will get fixed it is just a matter of time. I would not change anything your doing at this time. We have played around with our site a lot just testing things and nothing has made a difference so I think it is a Google problem

[simonm]

Though page rank - which is a measure of the quality (page rank) and quantity of backward links to your site - the context of those links can also have a significant impact on what search terms locate your site.

Try a search for "miserable failure"

Those search terms do not appear in the top listed page, however they do apear as part of many backward links. see 'cached' version of web page.

[greeneagle]

You will also note that many of those "miserable failure" links are from pages maintaining a 50-70% Google Page Rank.

[cbp]

pages maintaining a 50-70% Google Page Rank.

What do you mean by a 50-70% Google Page Rank?

Page Rank is on a log scale from 0 to 10.

CBP