Tell us how you really feel, OWG.

Sorry Paul, but honestly If I am not sure about something I wouldn't state it as fact I get really annoyed at how many people are posting online things that they have read somewhere, or a guy in a pub told them, but they post it as fact. (not suggesting that is the case here, I am generalising)

I just wish peole would realise that by giving out advice on a forum they are playing with real peoples lives. Maybe I am reading too much into things but what we say online can have an effect on the lives of real people. Here is part of a PM I received yesterday from a guy who recently joined a forum I post at, but participated at another large SEO forum I moderate at, so dropped a line to say Hi and thanks.

Quote
Our business is small potatoes compared to what you deal with but it pays the mortgage even with three children. Using things I learned from your posts, today when people go to Google, Yahoo, MSN and type in our industry keywords + just about any local city, county or state we are in the top 2 or 3 spots after the paid advertising listings. Sometimes even #1.

Quote end.

There really isn't any magic bullet, it is not that complicated, but the trick is to find a web marketer you are comfortable with, and take their advice. If you mix and match some from one, some from another and so on, you will not get the same result. The simple fact is that there are many ways to get results online, and people do things differently, which is why I recommend sticking to one site, or mentor (for want of a better word).

The only FACT about SEO is change. Things will always CHANGE. The keys is, to stay one step ahead of the Johnny Jacklegs out there, always adapting to changing conditions. I also like to rely on my own trial and error, or someone's advice who relies on their own trial and error, not some SEO e-book they downloaded last month. lol

Trial and error, been there, still there LOL. Isn't it best to learn from other peoples errors though

Yes, that too.

I'm finding that the PR individual pages have is less important to google. My site has a decent pR rating so when I published a new page it was given a good ranking even though it had 0 PR.

Page rank has very little weight in the Algorithm.

Yes, PR is not everything, a good ranking doesn't always mean that you'll gain more visitors, and similarly more visitors doesn't always mean more sale. Make pages for users, not for search engines.