PR 2, no inbound links, ranked #3 out of 571,000

[Bio4ce]

Somebody explain how a site like this can rank so high. The top 3 look like this:

#1 = 660 links and PR6
#2 = 104 links and PR4
#3 = no reported links and PR2
.
#10 = 426 links and PR6.

Doesn't make much sense to me. Any thoughts?

[Hoople]

Others have suggested checking linkage at Alexa.com due to the google effect of page rank reducing the displayable actual linkage. Other SE's have link search options too, have a go at it elsewhere :)

[nancyb]

Google doesn't show back links if the PR is less than 4 but they could have a couple high PR links or they could have a penalty of some kind and the SERPs is the result of the freshbot showing the page.

[Beachboy]

It will also depend on the nature of the competition, how well the other sites are optimized (and linked to) for the specific keyword phrase.

[skibum]

PR does not necessarily equal top rankings otherwise a select few sites would top the charts for all searches.

[daamsie]

Sounds like those sites are better optimised for the keywords in questions. In my short experience PR plays a very small part and title tags and content play a much larger part.

[rfgdxm1]

The fact this site has a PR2 means it must have inbound links. My guess is from some low PR pages which all used the search term in the anchor link. And, check and see if that page seems well optimized in all the usual ways for Google. My guess is that it is.

[stevenha]

Another weird thing to keep in mind, is something I learned from my site, and many others. My site spent many months at PR0, then some pages recovered partially to PR3. At this point, one or two of my pages were able to appear on the first page of Google SERPs. Eventually all penalties expired and the site became PR7, and ranked well.
So maybe the PR2 site you found is in the partial penalty expiring stage, and it is foreshadowing an even higher ranking in the future.

[skibum]

The results seem to still be fluctuating in some spots so the dust may not have settled just yet.

[nancyb]

The dust has definitely not settled. I'm seeing different results between refreshes and on different browsers almost simultaneously. Discovered this yesterday for my site and now am seeing it for many different searches. Posted earlier about this here [webmasterworld.com]

[WebManager]

I don't understand this obsession with inbound links - all pages on my most successful site are PR6. External links? -only about 10 listed.

[rfgdxm1]

>I don't understand this obsession with inbound links

This is how a site gets PR. And, anchor text on those links can count a LOT with Google. I in fact suspect in this case anchor text is part of the reason the page this thread is about is doing so well.

[sit2510]

Bio4ce,

"PR 2, no inbound links, ranked #3 out of 571,000"

I don't think it is a fluke! This may imply that their actual PR is not PR2, but more - only that Google Toolbar will show the actual number later, normally after the Google Dance.

If you are checking that site's PR and its ranking today which is only the 2nd day of Google update, you should be aware that Google Toolbar still has NOT shown up its update PR yet. Perhaps a week later, you will find that the actual PR of that site could be 4 or more....I bet this would be true!

[gsx]

I think beachboy has it correct.

My PR is 4 and I consistently outrank PR5, PR6, PR7 and some PR8 sites for common searches.

PR is one factor - it's the oil in the car, but without the petrol your still going nowhere.

[WebManager]

rfgdxm1

I fully understand how sites get PR! - my point was that it is possible to have a high PR with very few external links. Only one external link to my site has highly relevant anchor text.

My PR increased to over 5 due to a *single* link from a high profile site.