If Pagerank does not count then why!?

SERPS and PR out to get me

[whizkiddo]

I ranked pretty well for several of my keywords. The site is on widgets and visitors search for a particualr type of widget. I happily cam ein the top 20 for most cases. My PR of homepage was 6. Now several backlinks have dissappeared, the PR has dropped to 5.

I read that the SERPS and PR are not that closely connected and that several pages with lower PR come higher on the SERPS then ones with higher PR. In my case thougha drop in PR has been consisitent with loosing outon top positions and thus to a drop in traffic. I admit I had ignore d link building since past 3-4 months.

Will getting my Pr back up , solve the problem. Any other posts that feature on how to get SERPS up like importance of the different elements of the page then please guide me to it. I have already gone through the "successful site by google alone". I am looking for something that deals with simply optimising pages. Also please answer my PR question.

[conroy]

Pagerank does count quite a bit for internal pages. Many people say PR doesn't count because they are talking about that one money term that is hard to rank for - where anchor text rules.

For internal pages that don't usually have links except from other internal pages, PR is very important. A PR boost across the board can result in an increase of traffic. However, the opposite is also true and that is what you are experiencing. More links will certainly help.

[webnewton]

Well your page can still be on top on SERPS for your desired keywords with a pr of 5( Pr doen't matter here)
However, It does matter if the PR of your inner pages in 4 or more(Link from ineer pages then goes in your credit).
Moreover Link building must be an contant excercise, don't ignore it.

[anime_otaku]

google will ignore the weight of "domain contained" links for anchor text, at least for what may be called 'money terms'. pagerank is still of importance but more for how people from external webpages link to the page in question (anchor text), not how your internal pages link to each other.