end of pr as we know it?

does pr play any role whatsoever anymore?

not the end of pr, its probably much stricter. too early to make assumptions.

Lets see what happens.

It plays 1/100th of a percent.

No really, I think it means so little it doesn't matter.

What matters is backlinks with keywords to your website.

Something I've been doing that has helped is add a "add your link" page (yes it sounds spammy and yes people will whine)..

But I have it so they add a link they must have related content and they must put a link back to my site with my main keyword. If they don't my proggy automatically says "NOPE" and doesn't let them add.

Works well, has improved my ranking.

I think it still has a good bit to do with things. One of my sites is number one for the five targeted keywords at every SE, but Google. It is a very narrow niche term, with little competition. The site has a PR3 which is why I feel on Google I am barely in the top 10.

Well, if google is- their cutting off the hand that feeds them; PR is one of the key factors for such relevant searches.

I guess in theory PR can't ever be completely gone, and I'm sure links still are an importance, but it seems this dance really minimized any effect that PR/linking has ever had.

At least that what I'm seeing on my end.

In truth I am not a big fan of PR. I think it makes it difficult for new sites to get high in the rankings. Also, I don't like spending my time surfing to find sites to exchange links with. I would rather spend that time creating new sites and writing content for exisiting sites.

If PR was only 1/100th of the whole mix, then why do the "Advertising Link" sites at the bottom of http://www.foxnews.com/ do so well in ranking on Google. It is simply becuase they have the link from the high PR Fox News. This is happening on many high PR sites now-a-days. Bravenet also does this. The charges for these links are very high and are on a monthly basis. Do any of you have experience with this?

Also Johnnyb3, that is scariest picture I have ever seen, lol

They have related content LINKS back to them that's why they help them so much.

Just because the site that linked to them has a high PR that means very little, because it was on topic with what you looked for matters.

There are plenty of listings where google itself isn't first when it "should" be if PR mattered so much. If you'd like me to take a few minutes and find them I suppose I could.

OK, well then check one of the "advertisers" back links in Google. Here is one, link:http://www.timingcube.com/. They have NO RELATED links at all except for what they have paid for in Fox News and their PR is 7. They have 126 backlinks all from Fox News.

What was the search term used?

Yes exactly, they have links from fox to them that are related to the term you searched for. That is what I said in the previous message.

All the links from fox are about stocks.. The link title for the one I saw was even "Stock timing up 600%"

That's exactly what they want.

I'm not sure where PR comes into this. Getting links on the high pr sites will allow them to change their pages and get freshbotted more often ...

And also they are listed in DMOZ which would help any ranking...

No, no, no. I am not using a search term. I am simply checking all the backlinks to the site. Here is the link

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=link:http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Etimingcube%2Ecom%2F

They are all from FoxNews. This is not what Google wants. They want related "stock" links coming from many diferent sites linking to this "advertiser", but truthly everyone can see the reason this site has good rankings in Google and high PR is not because of related links, but because they all come from a high PR site. Just look through all the back links and you will see.

The link text itself is more important than the PR.

start checking the caches on some results and you will find they say "text not found on page but on related link.

It's fine if you don't believe me...

I have sites with 100% unrelated content but ONE link back to other sites of mine with the link text as my main keyword phrase and it gets picked up listed.

I have site maps listed in the top 10 because they contain the search related term.

I do believe everything you are saying because it is true. I think you are missing my point. All I am saying is that the sites PR has been directly effected by links from Fox News inbound links ONLY. Of course the text links used in this relationship is also important to achieving the results. The whole reason for this discussion was you stated that PR didn't matter. Of course this can not be true because the advertisers has only in bound links from one high PR site and has done well in Google. Using the appropriate optimization techniques on the advertiser site is important as using the correct text within the links on Fox News, but if that was all we needed we would all have great rankings. The way this site achieved great listing was by paying one website for PR.

PR is not the only reason this site is doing well, but it is major factor in its placements.

Check the keyword "market timing" in Google:

http://www.google.com/search?q=market+timing&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N

They are on the second page of results, ranked 12 overall for a very popular term. My point is they got there by ONLY having links from a high PR site, Fox News.