Is PageRank still important in SEO?

Since publishing my report "PageRank 4 in two weeks?" some of my blog readers have asked me and even argued about importance of PageRank in SEO. There is no simple answer for question asked in this blog post. Not because noone really knows it. It is rather because some people misunderstand what the PageRank really is. PageRank by itself do not guarantee  you a lot of search engine traffic. PageRank is one of indicators that shows you that your link building technique is good. But you need something more than links pointing to your website to make search engine a good traffic source.

PageRank? Who cares...?

Everyone cares. Or at least should care about their PageRank. Not just to have a one really high, but rather to have their website indexed well by Google. PageRank shows you quality of websites that are linking to your webpage. But there is something more than you need for good SEO. There may be thousands of good quality websites linking to you and you may have no any hits from Google. Why? Because it is just a one of the factors.

So what more do I need...?

You need good quality and unique content! Without it you won't get traffic from Google as it will not know under what keywords should your website be! Moreover as I said and I will repeat it once again your content must be unique! Google loves websites that bring something fresh to readers and with unique content you need much less links pointing to your website to be indexed well and get better SERPs.

So PageRank is not important...?

It is important! But it is not your main goal. First you need to build a unique website with great content. Then you must start getting backlinks from websites that are best quality! The best quality websites are marked by Google with good PageRank. Just a few high PR websites pointing to your page are a way better in building good SERPs that a hundred of spammy PageRank 0 backlinks.

Once again... so what is this PageRank all about???

PageRank shows you quality of websites that are pointing to your own webpage. If you have a good and unique content and have a lot of good quality backlinks you can get great SERPs in no time (even before your PageRank will update). But having a good PageRank of your webpage without great quality unique content that is really searched by people that are using Google will not guarantee you traffic from search engines.

Are there any more reasons I may want a good PageRank...?

There is at least a few reasons to build a good PageRank for your website.

1. Firstly it shows to your visitors that your webpage is established and they can trust you as you know what you are doing (since you have not started your website yesterday).
2. Another thing is that it brings much more advertisers as they trust you more and they know your website is crawled by Google more often.
3. And last but not least is total value of your website. If you will ever consider selling your website you will get a way more for PR4 than for PR1.

When it comes to any of this points noone asks if PageRank is still important for SEO. They just use it for website valuation. PageRank is showing to you and your visitors that you are doing something right. So it may not be treated as a main goal by itself. It is just a one of the indicators of your backlinks quality...