9 replies to this topic

[SEMSEO]

Can changing your registrant name affect your Google PageRank?

I have been changing the names of the registrants of my domain names a few times and I noticed that the PageRank would drop later from 4 to 1, 4 to 2, or 5 to 3.

Anyone here noticing this?

[Andy LoCascio]

I have changed registrant names for many sites and it has nothing to do with PageRank. There was a major recomputation of page rank a few weeks ago, most likely that is related to what you experienced.

Besides, who cares about PageRank anyway? It has absolutely no bearing on traffic or keyword rank. It is simply a measure of inbound link popularity.

Andy

[Jill]

Can changing your registrant name affect your Google PageRank?

I would think not, but have never done it so can't say for sure.

One would assume it's only toolbar PageRank, correct? Have you lost any traffic/sales?

Besides, who cares about PageRank anyway? It has absolutely no bearing on traffic or keyword rank. It is simply a measure of inbound link popularity.

PageRank is actually a pretty big piece of Google's algorithm. Not toolbar PageRank, of course, but the real PageRank that they know about. They have always placed a large amount of weighting on the number/quality of inbound links to web pages.

[Andy LoCascio]

Jill,

I agree on the impact of inbound links, however there is certainly a big disconnect between that and toolbar PageRank...worse, PageRank seems to be logorithmic in nature and two sites both sharing the same PageRank can have very different numbers of inbound links. This difference gets even more extreme as PageRank increases. Worse still is that PageRank does not take into account the quality (relevance) of the inbound links.

We pretty much ignore Google PageRank, instead we use tools which show us inbound links and keyword ranks for a specific set of terms at each of those links. We lost all faith in Google's ability (or willingness) to provide an accurate list of inbound links long ago (though Yahoo is fairly accurate).

Andy

[Jill]

Yes, which is why we distinguish between Toolbar PageRank (which can mostly be ignored) and real Google PageRank (which nobody gets to see).

[SEMSEO]

There was a major recomputation of page rank a few weeks ago, most likely that is related to what you experienced.

Really? Probably that explains the reason why one of my sites dropped in ranking for a keyword where it is supposed to be on top. But the toolbar PageRank for this site remain the same.

By the way, I am referring to toolbar PageRank that is in green color.

Besides, who cares about PageRank anyway? It has absolutely no bearing on traffic or keyword rank. It is simply a measure of inbound link popularity.

I am aware that the toolbar PageRank has no bearing on traffic as I can see it for myself where my site with PageRank 3 has 50,000 times more traffic than PageRank 4 site.

Besides, who cares about PageRank anyway?

My employer and my clients care about the toolbar PageRank that is in green color as that is the only way for them to know that I have been doing something for their websites. In fact, recently, I have come across a job posting where the employer requires the SEO to improve their company's Alexa ranking.

[SEMSEO]

I would think not, but have never done it so can't say for sure.

One would assume it's only toolbar PageRank, correct? Have you lost any traffic/sales?
PageRank is actually a pretty big piece of Google's algorithm. Not toolbar PageRank, of course, but the real PageRank that they know about. They have always placed a large amount of weighting on the number/quality of inbound links to web pages.

Yes, the toolbar PageRank. No lost in traffic but I lost my face (because I bragged to my client that I have made their new website PageRank 4 from PageRank 0 in less than 2 months).

I've been trying to find out the reason why. Then, I discovered they made changes in the name of the registrant recently. That reminds me of my personal websites where PageRank dropped after I made changes to my registrant info. After Googling around, I found that others have shared the same experience too. So, I suspect, they are related. Hope Matt Cutts aka Rick Astley could verify this.

[Andy LoCascio]

Obviously we have been doing something horribly wrong over here!!!

We have been spending all our time looking at keyword rank, traffic, pages per visit, and conversion rate...when we should have been focusing on that PageRank graphic!!!

I am dumping all our clients and will only take new clients that focus on foolish misleading Google-like constructs.

I am sending an email to the folks at Yahoo suggesting that they create the HooRankYa rating. This rating will be updated 3-4 times per year, just before shopping season, and whenever it happens to suite them (sound familiar). It will be loosely based on the Alexa ranking and the position of the stars on the day the site was last updated. The rank will also include some random and undocumented penalties so that site owners will feel inadequate enough to reach out for help (new clients for us...yeah!).

We will spend hours pondering and discussing the mysteries of the rank and all its implications (sound familiar).

I hate being cynical, but its 10pm at night and I started at 5:30am today. Too much of my time is being spent dealing with the whims of the search engines. We have clients with great unique useful content and we are scrambling to get them the ranks they deserve. Sometimes this business is just plain silly!!!

Frankly, all the search engines are pretty lame. The more we look at the data, the more ridiculous it all seems. We thought that by building hyper-accurate monitoring tools that we could make more sense of all of this. All the tools are doing are pointing out the incredible inconsistencies both within and between the search engines. We have data comparing Google, Yahoo, and MSN for the exact same baskets of keywords over 30 days and the differences are incredible.

Here is the final word (Jill will like this); Build your sites with unique useful content, update them often, partner with other sites that have the same philosophy, play by the rules, and most important ignore all any silly measurements provided by people who have it in their best interests to keep you off balance.

Andy

[Randy]

The only way changing the domain registration information would affect either PageRank is if the changes were enough to trigger a domain reset. Meaning it would have to be enough for Google to think the domain had been purchased by someone else. Typically this doesn't happen if the domain hadn't also expired. And when it does the PR doesn't go from 5 to 2 or whatever. It goes to blank, because the domain is being treated like a brand new site would be.

I rather doubt this is what's happening in your case. Unless you're changing a lot more than just a few registration details. Especially not if you've maintained rankings and traffic.

[Jill]

Here is the final word (Jill will like this); Build your sites with unique useful content, update them often, partner with other sites that have the same philosophy, play by the rules, and most important ignore all any silly measurements provided by people who have it in their best interests to keep you off balance.

Glad your tools have finally brought you to the right conclusion.