Been out of the loop for a while..what are the best ways to increase PR?

So, I haven't really been in the 'loop' as it were for a while now. Does page rank still make a difference? Are link backs still the way to go? Keywords still redundant? What's the most important factors to increase PR in Google today?

You need to increase your back links, submit articles to high ranking directories

Backlinks are most important for PR. Keywords are kinda redundant but sort of important as well.

Yep I agree with WhiteOwl. Backlinks are essential for you to increase your PR.

Social bookmarking websites can give you one way backlinks if you submit your website URL as a bookmarked site. The more sites you submit to, the more one way links you can get. Sure, it takes a little time to create accounts on each social bookmarking site, but the effort is indeed worthwhile.

First of all, please understand how Google decide website’s page rank, Google Page rank is based on back links. Back links are Links pointing to your website from another website. The more back links you have the higher your PR will be, if you can get more back links then you can easily get higher PR.

Honestly, PR isn't really that important. Just worry about creating great content and building lots of back links - the PR will come later.

Page ranking, despite what many SEO experts say, are just a small part of your SEO plan. The ranking algorithm is complicated; believe us when we tell you, a lower page ranked site can actually surpass a higher ranked site. Page rank is a great determination of websites popularity; however, it won't be the major factor in gaining website traffic.

get away form the Page rank obsession!