Google PageRank by Michigan Search Engines Consultant.

PageRank is a term applied by Google to measure the importance of a particular page. Basically it measures the quality and quantity of sites that link to a particular page. The easiest way to check PageRank on any given page is to download the Google Toolbar.  Many site owners mistakenly place all of their focus on increasing PageRank even though Google Information For Webmasters explains though that PageRank is only one of more than 100 factors included, in determining the order of results for a search term query.

To put it simply, if all other factors were equal between two given sites, the site with the higher PageRank would theoretically be listed above the other in search results.  When deciding to exchange links with a site, it is important to think towards quality first rather than quantity. Ask yourself if providing this link as a resource on your site, will provide a benefit to your visitors. If not, then the answer should be simple for you. You may have to dig a little deeper, but there are plenty of quality websites available on the net for resources.  It is imperative for site owners understand though, that they do need incoming links. Search engines find the information they use to index sites, by following links throughout the net. If no links are leading to your site it is unlikely that you site will ever be fully indexed.

If incoming links are RELEVANT, it will be a tremendous benefit to your site traffic. A site does not receive a PR rating. Each page within a site receives individual PR. If no other factors are involved, when the main page has a PR5, the second level of pages will automatically end up a PR4, provided there is a link to them the main page. 3rd level pages will drop to a PR3. The only reason for this, is the USUALLY when people link to your site they will automatically link to your main page, rather than pages within you site. Therefore, the main page tends to have the largest number of incoming links. Individual pages in a site do occasionally end up with a higher PR than the main page. This occurs most commonly with a popular page on your site receiving a large number of incoming links.