So SERPS plummeted but PRwent to 5 - and 5 is the beginning of SERIOUS.
The advantage of PR mens you are considered an authority in whatever niche you are in.
PR is a product of inbound link ONLY. It is designed to give an idea of the quality and authority of your site. It doesn't work well. Good links can be ignored while games and spammy links can boost significantly in some cases. The list below is what PR is SUPPOSED to be an indicator of SUPPOSED TO being the operative word. It' is FAR from perfect.
This isn't official - but I saw it printed a few years back and copied this list here (sort of paraphrase style as I can't remember the exact details)
PR NA/O New site - no authority.
PR 1-2 2nd stage or alternative point of reference for minority topics
PR 3-4 Primary souce of reference for minority topics. 2nd stage or alternative P.O.R for moderately popular niches
PR 5-6 Primary source of reference for moderately popular niches, 2nd stage P.O.R for global interest topics
PR 7-8 Primarly source of information for global topics. Authority on a worldwide level
PR9 Select sites whose performance is the indicator and balance for those with lower PR to be guaged against.
Moderate topics or niches in this were those which attracted arounf 100,000 UV's a DAY (roughly - that wasn't the figure in the original - it's just what I remember it as for the purposes of conversation, if someone else has this list or a link to it - please put it up to correct the assumptions I'm making here. It is generally right though)
So, if your domain has suddely rocketed from PR2 to PR5 and your SERPS has plummeted I can think of two possible reasons (may be more - but I can think of two)
1) The site is dancing. After evaluation Google know sees you as a real authority and is going to spend the next 6 weeks moving your website around doing a "bubble sort" against others in your niche until you are in a fair (and probably very respectable) position for you PR and content.
2) You have been caught gaming links from high PR sites. Google has currently allowed the links to count as PR - at least until the next official PR update - but realised you are gaming high PR links and remedied any possible benefit you might have by manually slapping the ass off your site in SERPS
Those are my best ideas for this. Hope it's the former.
Scritty
