So you think you're an SEO expert?

[The Old Sarge]

I'm not implying it, I'm saying it outright.

If you go to http://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html (which is in a link from YOUR link) you'll find this:

"PageRank Technology: PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results."

"... more likely to appear ..." That's because sites/pages that garner high PR for content and backlinks very likely also have fine-tuned SEO. Notice that it does not come right out and say that backlinks result in better SERPs. It says " ... more likely ..."

A site can have all the backlinks from all the sites on the Internet with PR 5 or higher but if that site's SEO is neglected or non-existant, it is not likely to place very highly in the SERPs.

If you have hard evidence that backlinks result in better SERPs, please share it. IMO, this is not it. I could be wrong but so far I've seen no evidnece that I am.