PR and Links

see saw

[whizkiddo]

My PR after launch was 5. worked hard at getting good links the traditional way, wrote to religiously to 10 people daily. got some success and after a few months the update got me a PR 6. Happiness followed and so did laziness. Worked on content and as a result no new links for some time. However after a couple of updates (which made no changes) , the last one brought me down to PR 5 back. Loss of traffic , sessions and position in SERPS.

Question: The number of backlinks are unchanged. IF no new links from good PRs have been added, they certainly have not been removed either. a few people may have added in fact, forums and the lot. So wats wrong? And how do I get it back?

Am I correct in assuming that the PR 6 was a lower level 6 while the 5 I have now is a higher level 5? I still want a PR 6 since i do believe it helps in SERPS as well as establising that the site is credible.

Please comment and help.

[diamondgrl]

PR is a measure that is relative to everyone else. It just means that everyone else is on the move, building links. You have to be too if you want your PR to grow or stay strong.

[doc_z]

A change in toolbarPR can be caused by several effects:
- a change of PR for pages linking to that page
- a change of transferred PR caused by a change of the number of links on those pages
- a change in the PR algorithm (e.g. the damping factor)
- a change in the toolbar scale

Am I correct in assuming that the PR 6 was a lower level 6 while the 5 I have now is a higher level 5?

Yes, most likely.

[hugo_guzman]

"I still want a PR 6 since i do believe it helps in SERPS as well as establising that the site is credible."

"visual" PR (the little green bar) might make your site seem more credible, but it does not influence SERPs.

There are two kinds of PR;
1) visual (the green bar)
2) internal (the one that is used by the google algo to determine SERPs

The first one is simply a gauge for a site's "importance", and is accesible by the public, the second one is an integral factor in the google algo but is not accesible by the public.

Do not concern yourself too much with the "visual" PR. You can still improve your SERPs position even if you're PR remains at 5. SERPs and visual PR do not always have a direct relationship to one another.