22 replies to this topic

[glengara]

Let's not go overboard, low PR is one thing, PR0 another....

[Mhoram]

Most good advertisers know if the site is worth advertising on or not, regardless of PR.

I wish that were true, but advertisers as a group have no reason to be more immune to PR fascination than anyone else, so while I'm sure there are some who know to disregard Toolbar PR, there also have to be many who think it's critical. I don't know what you mean by "good advertisers"; in my book, a good advertiser is one who pays his bills. We've seen a large drop in advertiser signups since PR dropped. Rankings and traffic haven't changed, and nothing about the page design or content has changed to be scaring them off. The only difference is Toolbar PR.

It's easy for me to tell my client that selling advertising to vendors who happen along through organic searches isn't a viable profit strategy; but the fact is, it was steadily profitable for her for years--until this PR foolishness started. It's also easy for me to say, "You don't want those PR-hunters; they're not supposed to be buying PR anyway." But who cares why they're buying advertising, as long as they pay for it? When I buy a steak at the grocery store, they don't care whether I have a great meal or leave it in the back of my fridge to rot. Likewise, my client didn't mind selling advertising to people who (presumably) only cared about the PR5 link, and she can't help hunting for a way to get that back. Logically, if PR could suddenly go to 0 for no known reason, it could just as suddenly go back to 5, right? And if we could figure out how to make it do that, it'd be a good thing, right? And there's the circular conversation we keep having.

[dharrison]

I just submitted this discussion to bizSugar.com because I'm pretty darn sure most small businesses are fixated on their Pagerank. I stopped paying attention to PR because, and correct me if I'm wrong, I thought that Google said they were going to drop the whole Pagerank thing.

I wish they would.

It is very easy to get brainwashed into thinking pageRank is important the way that some companies carry on.

[nedguy]

I just don't get PageRank Obsession. Unless you sell PageRank (in the form of text links), what your PR is simply doesn't matter. PR is simply a means to an end. Focussing on the ends makes more sense.

Matters to me.

I don't sell page rank, but I'm a directory and people* think I do. So when my little green bar went from 5 to zero in early Jan, so did my site review fees.....not one sale since that date.

Still, I expect like all Google's aberrations, it'll get restored in a year or two.

NG

* people.... as in real people. We - a few thousand, maybe even tens of thousands of, SEO/SEMs - may smugly know that the little green bar means nothing, but in real life the millions and millions and millions of users who mouseover the little green bar and read "PageRank is Google's measure of the importance of this page" make value judgements about buying/trusting the content of that page, influenced in part by Google's appraisal. Of course PageRank is important.

[Jill]

But nedguy, isn't PageRank exactly what you're selling? (Or are you nofollowing the links?)

[nedguy]

No. I'm not selling pagerank. If anything, I'm selling traffic.

I did put link condoms on all the links back in Dec, which I now suspect may have been what triggered the change.

I've taken them off again now. (There are NO links to bad neighbourhoods, so they don't require nofollow.)

[kynduvme]

Hey every body.

I am a long time subscriber to Jill's newsletter just never signed up for the forum.

I would agree with this premise 100% if I did not see a direct correlation between ranking increase and visible PR increase, but I do. I see it regularly and repeatedly with new and old clients alike. I have been a preo SEO specialist for 7 years and have a bit of perspective. I agree that its not AS important, but to say one should completely ignore it, I think, is incorrect.

:o)

[redsonia!]

Welcome to the forum, kynduvme! It'll be nice to get your perspective on topics.