PR Cap?

top sites only PR5

[4string]

What does it mean if the top sites in my niche only have a PR5? Does it mean it is such a small niche there's not much traffic to be had? These sites seem to have every possible niche-related link there is. Would you bother with such a niche? Does it have any relevance at all?

4

[Right Reading]

It doesn't mean anything, as long as you are ranking well for your keywords and searches are delivering visitors.

[phantombookman]

In my experience, getting past PR5 (without buying links) is difficult.
Getting PR4 or 5 is easy.
I have plenty of PR5 sites, one only months old, but no PR6s

As G throttles back the value of some links it gets ever harder to get past 5, especially so in niche areas

[Beachboy]

Are you in the adult field? It appears to me that adult sites are limited to PR5.

[Pico_Train]

Unless you are buying links getting higher than PR5 is difficult.

Not really, just keep at it and find useful, relevant sites with good people in charge of them.

That's the recipe...now go cook.

[MrStitch]

I still say that my site is being capped.

Every page i have is linked to the home page, and every page has PR5 or 6,.... yet my home page has PR 3.

For the life of me, I can't figure this out.

[thgyspsy]

I must agree with “It doesn't mean anything, as long as you are ranking well for your keywords and searches are delivering visitors.”

I have haggled out the ‘measurable’ value of Page Rank on many forums as part of an article I wrote and here is a reasonable summary;

‘Google’s Page Rank system has it’s values as far as being a factor in the algorithms decision making but should in no way be considered a focal point of a meaningful SEO/SEM campaign. It is best used by webmasters in understanding the relevance value of a website and for identifying potential ranking bottle necks and red flags a site may possess. It’s mere existence denotes a value is inherent within SEO activities, but without a true measurable value, it is not a viable target for marketing investments’

If your activities and interest in PR don’t fall into the above, you may want to question the focus on PR in the first place.

[steveb]

"yet my home page has PR 3."

That's almost certainly the new site bug. Lots of new sites have randomly lower main pages than internal pages, especially if you had PR3 last update, added new pages that are 5 or 6 now, but the main page didn't change.

FYI, Google is screwed up. :)

[egurr]

"yet my home page has PR 3."

I'm seeing a lot of this as well. On one of our sites we have PR4 and PR5 internally and PR3 on the home page. What we found is that the index page has many more IBLs mostly from very low PR sites. In other words I think you're better with 20IBLs averaging a PR4, than 3000 IBLs averaging PR2.
Probably half the people reading this just went "Well Duh!

[Wizard]

yet my home page has PR 3

If it had PR 3 last year, it can be indefinitely higher by now, because there weren't normal toolbar PR update this year. Or may be just on February. All following updates didn't affect pages with already assigned PR, only new pages without one. So if your site is now PR 6, it's likely to show still PR 3 on toolbar but recently added second level pages with PR 5.

[4string]

Thanks for your responses. I don't know if my real question is being answered here by a lot of you.

I'm not really concerned with what my site's PR is or with how to get more. I was just wondering if PR can be used as a traffic indicator like Alexa. Should one bother with a niche whose top sites are seemingly capped at PR5? (Not adult by the way.)

To me it just feels like authority sites should have a PR7 or more.

[varya]

What url are you using to link to your home page?

If you link to /index.html (or index.php or what have you) you're giving your pr to that page and not to [domain.com...] .

[steveb]

PR has nothing to do with traffic, and there is no such thing as a cap.