39 replies to this topic

[McFox]

McFox, PR is part of the mix. You don't need it in much the same way as you don't need title tags, but you'd be foolish to ignore PR entirely. In competitive keyword areas, it is essential.

Read you loud and clear!

McFox

[Jill]

What happened to "but that's because high PR sites are good sites...that's why they have high PR"?

Huh? I'm of course talking about say a porn site or something linking to my parenting site, or that type of situation.

Certainly, it may be the best porn site in the biz, and may have a great PageRank, but it doesn't mean I want a link from it.

Peter, I know you're just making a joke, but others may not, so I think it's important to clarify this.

It's always better to have relevant links than non-relevant, but I wouldn't necessarily turn down a non-relevant link if there was good reason for it to be there.

For instance, an ad in my email newsletter might not be for something to do with SEO, and I imagine the link in the site archive does help the other site's PageRank to a certain extent, even though it's not necessarily "on topic." Nothing wrong with that. The original ad is not purchased (I don't think!) to get a link, it's purchased to make the product or service known to the 26,000+ subscribers who originally get the newsletter by email. The archived link is simply a nice bonus!

Jill

[peter_d]

Yeah, I know Jill. However, I feel that it is a mistake to equate PR with quality, which was the direction the thread was taking. PR has little to do with quality and a lot to do with popularity. Something that is qood can also be popular, but that is by no means automatic.

If some readers don't grasp that distinction, then they may waste time. A few decent PR links can work wonders.

[powerofeyes]

Rankings on all SERPs

Probably right before the google update, But not now, We have couple of pages rank in competitive areas with a PR0, I feel PageRank is more topic sensitive in this update,
Certain topics like web hosting, web design PageRank is Mandatory for a good ranking, certain commercial topic pages doesnt seem to need any PageRank what so ever, For example couple of keywords recently we got ranking are deemed really competitive but the copywritten new page for each of the product we created are just brand new and doesnt possess any PageRank, But those product pages are ranking in top 5 for competitive keyword phrases, So PageRank now seems to be more topic sensitive,

[JamesW]

Why does there seem to be such an obsession with PageRank?

I used to check the PageRank of my websites with the Google Toolbar, but came to the conclusion that I wasn't actually that bothered with PageRank.

Surely if you website has good content and this is optimised well enough then the PageRank will follow. And, at the end of the day, who cares if you have PageRank 8 if you are only competing for a term like 'red and green widgets, with a little yellow bit on top'. Again, if you have PageRank 1, yet rank highly for your target keyphrases, do you really care?

I now view PageRank as merely a label for doing things right.

Cheers

James

[Grumpus]

So PageRank now seems to be more topic sensitive,

Sort of.

In reality, PageRank is PageRank is PageRank. It has nothing to do with topic. It is simply a quantative value assigned to a page based upon the number and quality of inbound links. The quality of the inbound link is determined by the PageRank of the linking page. PageRank is still used to this day.

Then, there is a separate factor in ranking called TSPR - Topic Sensitive PageRank. This figure is derived from a preset list of "topics" and it creates a biased vector of the original PR value based upon the inbound links' pages relationship to that topic.

It's important not to confuse the two because, well, because they are not the same and they are both still used in the algo.

G.

[projectphp]

It's important not to confuse the two because, well, because they are not the same and they are both still used in the algo

Perhaps you should have prefaced that with "speculation"?

Rankings on all SERPs

Probably right before the google update, But not now, We have couple of pages rank in competitive areas with a PR0, I feel PageRank is more topic sensitive in this update,

PageRank still effects ALL searches. How much is the question. Do think Google discarded PageRank is a bit naive, it is just that, whenever any algo change is made, it can appear that factor X is no longer relevant. Trying to isolate exactly why a page does or doen't rank becomes more and more dificult the more additional factors are added, and to say one factor is the single key is a false belief.

[wholland]

I would like to propose a test to determine how important page rank is.

My site currently ranks 255 on google for my most important search term. My suggestion is that a couple of you with high ranking sites link to my site, boost my pagerank (temporarily of course). I don't make any changes to my site. After page rank goes up check the serps. Remove the links, after pagerank goes down check the serps again.

If the serps return to about the same place as it was, after page rank is reduced, it can eliminate other factors as the reason for any changes in the serps during the high page rank period.

Any Takers???

[Jill]

You are talking about whether links help, not PageRank.

Jill

[wholland]

You are talking about whether links help, not PageRank.

Well, the only way to get pagerank is through links. Obviously there is differnece from a link from a PR1 site versus a PR8 site. One will help your own PR dramatically the other does not do much. In this case I am talking about links from specific sites that can give the linkee a high pagerank.

[Incognito]

I have a web hosting company and as some know its extremely competitive, maybe not as much as others but still competitive. I can tell you that your site won't even be seen without good pagerank.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is screwing with you.

[Scottie]

Welcome to the forum, Incognito!

[anthonyparsons.com]

I can tell you that your site won't even be seen without good pagerank

What a load of rubbish. I just used this as an example in another post the other day. My own SEO website, just launched recently, holds a PR3 and ranks 5 or 6 in G for "search engine copywriting".

Guess what? Many websites under mine have a higher PR value. That blows the theory that you need a good PR to rank highly. PR is next to nothing when it comes to ranking a website. I think grumpus stated somewhere, that it is one of over a 100 factors considered.

I reckon that some people think to hard about the whole SEO concept. KISS! Keep It Simple Stupid. Always works the best.

McFox, as others stated already, PR comes naturally from having a good website. Ranking comes from having a well designed (not just looks), well written website. Concentrate on the website and the PR will naturally come. If you think that these PR8 and so forth websites happen overnight, guess what? Go and ask the owners of them and they will generally reply with a couple of years or more to achieve it.

[mcanerin]

Actually... Pagerank hasn't the slightest bit of importance or effect - to any SE except Google. Remember that - especially for 2004

Ian

[Incognito]

I am talking about competitive keywords/phrases. "search engine copywriting" is not competitive. Relatively speaking according to overture that phrase:

search engine copywriting 11.5/day

web hosting 33,453.4/day

business 51,091.4/day


You must be joking thinking that PageRank doesn't matter since your whoever has the #6 spot for a search phrase that pulls not even 1% of 1% of a competitive phrase. Do you really think you page will be seen with a PR of 3? Go through every search result for a popular keyword and you will have one hell of a time finding a PR3 site in them.