7 replies to this topic

[robmarketshare]

For the website (see my profile) we noticed a problem when we viewed our home page with the VisualPage Rank tool from iwebtool,com . Neither of the naviagtional links show a PR, except a couple of links at the bottom.
Especially the links to the sub-dirs ( left navigation) worry us.

In some cases the destination urls have a good PR of 4 , and sometimes they only have 0 or 1 ( toolbar)

Additionally we notice a hudge difference between the results for links with a slash or without:
See example www.xxx.fr/auto versus www.xxx.fr/auto/ or /ford-mustang/ vs /ford-mustang and /aston-martin/ vs /aston-martin

Is this a related problem or the same? And what to avoid it ?

Any suggestions,( and a sullutions) would be more then welcome !
Thanx

[chrishirst]

1/ Who cares?


2/ Just link to them


AND ignore crappy tools about PR

[robmarketshare]

1/ Who cares?
2/ Just link to them
AND ignore crappy tools about PR

I care; about how I get the site indexed with the proper pages. I still see the PR as an aid to see how G sees my site.
And if a (even a crappy) tool isn't able to retrieve the PR, there must be a reason for it. (at least that is what i think)

Re-Phrased Question: How to avoid pages being indexed as /auto/ AND /auto ? Or does it not matter ?

[Randy]

And if a (even a crappy) tool isn't able to retrieve the PR, there must be a reason for it. (at least that is what i think)

Have you ever considered that maybe it's an issue with the tool getting flakey or false results because it's scraping the Toolbar PR numbers in violation of Google's TOS? hmm?

There is no way to do this and stay within the rules Google has set out. There is no PR API. So even though I could do it with every tool I create (it's a piece of cake from the coding perspective) I won't do it. Not only do I not want my site or server dinged by Google for blatantly breaking their rules, I know it would be a very simple thing for them to detect such hits automatically with them all coming from the same IP number and with the same user-agent identification most likely. If they can detect it so easily, they can either shut off the capability by blocking the scrape attempt or they can have more fun and report inaccurate data back to the tool, so that users eventually think the tool must be crap.

If I were Google that faulty data approach is exactly what I'd do. Might has well have some fun with 'em and hit 'em where it actually hurts.

As to all the rest, here's the deal...

There are things that are important, there are things that are not so important and there are things that are complete time wasters.

If you want to take part in chasing things that are complete time wasters it's your perogative. After all it's your site and your time. However please don't expect us to waste our time in order to help you waste your time, if that's what you're dead set upon doing.

As Chris already said, just link to 'em in a way that will make sense to your visitors. Make sure your linking code is clean and that you're consistent in how you link to your own pages. That's all you need to do and you're set. There's nothing more to do or worry about.

[torka]

Toolbar PR is NOT the PR Google uses for page rankings. And the toolbar itself is notoriously prone to glitches that cause it to display PR that's even more inaccurate than what it usually shows.

That's why closely tracking, and indeed caring much at all, about Toolbar PR is a waste of time. Why Page Rank Doesn't Matter.

Let's say you have a car. Would you consider it important to check every day to make sure the radio is tuned to your favorite station? Would that have anything at all to do with whether the car could get you where you want to go? Would you consider checking the radio to be more important than making sure the oil gets changed regularly and the engine is properly supplied with fuel? Focusing on Toolbar PR as a component of SEO is like checking your radio every day.

AFAIK, the presence or absence of a trailing slash shouldn't matter. Have you been consistent in how you link to pages internally? If not, fix that. If so, don't sweat it.

And stop using tools that focus on misleading and irrelevant information.

--Torka

[robmarketshare]

I knew I should not mention PT and TB on HR.
It distracts from the real issue: how to make sure the right pages are indexed.

As far as I can destilate from the answers (filtering out PR/TB bits) is that the only way to make sure Google indexes the right pages is to link to them very consistently . Correct ?

[don h]

Use a deep hierarchy structure, this model will help Google determine the most important hub pages.

I just pulled this up from Microsoft: http://technet.micro...y/cc181559.aspx
That should help you understand how to structure your site.

You can also use Webmaster tools to see how PR is distributed throughout your site, go to Statistics -> Crawl Stats. Although, that information is probably just as inaccurate as toolbar PR.

[chrishirst]

the only way to make sure Google indexes the right pages is to link to them very consistently . Correct ?

Absolutely 100%