I've been doing some Internet marketing programs for local businesses and have been amazed by the fixation on Google Pagerank. Everyone wants a high page rank, believing it to be the magic ticket to results on-line. Here's the truth.

While I'm a bit late sharing the Google PageRank doesn't matter message, my network of websites for sales people has proved it.
Most of my network represents the maximum Google PageRank of 4, where the medium rank is 2, yet I'm squeezing thousands of very expensive keywords out of organic search. Some sites fair better than others, but there is no measurable difference traffic or keyword value between sites with higher average PageRank over those with low.
Because I want your business website to best support your b2b lead generation and other Internet marketing activities, here's what really matters:

• Content strategy. Create content that provides strong value to visitor. This means farm your long tail, get involved with visitors, and serve a specific buyer.
• Measure success. In profit per unique visitor and conversion to customer daily. If the site isn't creating more income than it is burning, then the site is failing.
• Measuring traffic. By unique visitor daily and traffic quality with daily conversion to lead. Your only real measure of traffic value is a double-opt-in name on a list.
• Linking strategy. Create content worth referencing or sharing with others. Build on past successes, cultivate unique prospective, and deliver goods that define the marketplace.
• Social media strategy. Connect with individual newsletter readers and clients, everyone else can watch. Besides showing that real people run these sites, social media is just another channel for communications.

Coaching clients in each of these areas has identified several myths, mostly from “old” Internet marketing insights sold as “new” by hucksters. In the business-to-business world, you don't need to have a popular website to make money.
For example, a few technical services contractors I've worked with turn a 15% conversion rate on <5 keywords, generating leads where 4/7 become customer. With an average cost per lead (CPL) of $485, they turn around great returns with a profit per sale (PPS) of $16,500. These results aren't typical, but this is from a site with a PageRank of zero! It could be argued more of those keywords would come through IF they had a higher Google PageRank -- until you discover the majority of their traffic comes from MSN Live and Yahoo!. Another issue against PageRank making a major difference to business websites is the volume of search traffic. Most high converting keywords only have search counts of 2 or 3 per day. They are extremely low volume, so the likelihood of heavy competition is low. If you want results with your business website, then content, measurements, linking, and social media matter. With these things a Google PageRank may come, however, by serving your visitors you'll generate profit boosting leads on the way.
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Justin Hitt works with technology services business to refine Internet marketing strategy for profitable lead generation and customer acquisition. For measurable results visit https://www.jwhco.com/