I don’t want to brag, but it just feels reassuring when others are saying the same thing you are. First it was Gerry McGovern. Now it’s Brad Bereitschaft. In an article about PageRank, he concludes:

The take home message here is that PageRank is important, but it certainly is not worth obsessing over; there are many other factors involved in website ranking that should be given nearly equal consideration. In addition, simply building a good website is the best thing you can do to attract visitors, even without a great PageRank. PageRank, however, will likely follow - consider it a welcomed byproduct of your hard work.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Design for your target audience and the search engine will follow. His entire article is a good one about PageRank.