Page rank & SE listing question

A site has been down for 2 years and still ranks

[TammyJo]

There is a website that still ranks on page one for a major single word search term that has been content free for 2 years at least. There is a "We will be back" page, but other than that there is no where to go. They still have a PR 5.

How can this be?

[tedster]

It's the power of backlinks and their anchor text, most likely.

Page Rank is solely related to links, not content. Plus, if you click on the "cached" link, you may see an explanation in Google's header. "These terms only appear in links pointing to this page:"

[TammyJo]

Thanks so much!

I just checked it out and you hit it on the head. It is only ranking because of backlinks.

Do you know the rational for this? Why would they put so much effort into ranking backlinks, without verifying there is even content on the page? Makes no sense to me :)

[soapystar]

i have noted this many times but from a different angle. Its because the algo is now so much to do with filters. I have followed with great interest a site that can overcome an onpage penalty by removing its content. The pages are not even that heavily optimised but its enough for the filters to chew on. Take away the content and voila the page ranks. I know its not really the same as above but the end result is the same. There seems filters for almost minute details but still not one that checks the page actually has content.