22 replies to this topic

[OldWelshGuy]

PR10 Dreamweaver

[OldWelshGuy]

For example PHPBB was blocked from passing any pagerank to the site it links, so it happens

Are you talking about the PHPBB website, or the PHPBB product?

[JamesW]

Hi all

In my opinion, PageRank is just an indicator as to how important Google views your web site as being.

People always seem to ask 'how do I increase my PageRank from this number to that number'. I think the best bet is just to ignore PageRank and just pursue a good SEO strategy.

Perhaps people should concentrate on the 'how do I improve my web site?' question instead!

Cheers

James

[powerofeyes]

Are you talking about the PHPBB website, or the PHPBB product?

PHPBB.com site, I was talking about their site, Initially when their site was a PR10 it was showing as backlinks to the sites listed on their homepage and other pages but now it has disapeared,
Still none of the sites linking from PHPBB shows PHPBB.com as backlink,

[OldWelshGuy]

Spot on James, I have some PR4 sites appearing top for competitiveish terms (internet marketing) giving 1.5 million results but appearing #1 with MANY higher PR sites down below it.

IMO Google don't like 3 legged horses, it wants a well designed site, easy to get around, with relevant linked information pages, AND relevant links (PR).

I was gobsmacked last week when after checking a customer site backlinks, there are now almost 200 showing, I arranged about 10 of them, he arranged about 10-15. The rest have linked to the site for its information about his subject. he sits at #2, and PR has never come into the equasion. I have to admit to pretty much ignoring PR I just work on the aspects that need working on, I then find PR creeps up on its own.

[JamesW]

OWG

Exactly! Who bothers about PageRank when your web site's number one for a desirable term, a term which brings you results?

Again, if you've got a high PageRank yet aren't showing-up anywhere for your targeted keywords, who cares?

Cheers

James

[Grumpus]

I agree and, yet, at the same time, I disagree with all of this.

PR as a number and thing to lose sleep over is a complete waste of time and stomach acid. But a good linking strategy is still equally, if not more, important than it ever was. A link from virtually anywhere will help your PR. You do need links - ones that come from pages that are relevant to yours (and hopefully show up for some of the same terms as yours), ones that have good link text, and ones that go to the most relevant page on your site and not just your homepage.

If you want to know if it's going to rain, you don't ask what the temperature is outside. Sure, temperature combined with barametric pressure and relative humidity is what determines if it rains or not, but in and of itself, it's not very telling of whether or not you should bring an umbrella.

Inbound links are a key to ranking well, and PR is a "thermometer" that tells you how hot or cold you are in the broad and general linking game. It's not particularly useful in telling you whether you'll rank well, though - at least on its own. cline's table on the first page of this thread is a good one to look at as a meter - and 4 (maybe 5) can be pretty easily achieved without too much thought.

The key here is to not look at the PR (the overall quantity of links) but rather, the quantity of links that also relate to your chosen term.

For example, let's look at the 'miserable failure' google bomb (though I see that Jimmy Carter, Hilary Clinton, and Michael Moore are also being bombed now...)

Try searching:
link: www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html miserable failure (244) versus
link: www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html (337)

About 3/4 of the page's inbound links (that are showing) have the term on the page.

It's not so much the PR of the page, it's the volume and ratio of the words that are on the pages that link to it. So, links are important. PR is a general measure of links, so it's important too - it's just not "all telling".

G.

[mcanerin]

And as I've said before, there are definitely times when links from a PR0-3 site are a good thing.

This would be when they have just launched it, or are just stating an SEO campaign, or they have lots of highly qualified traffic.

Generally, people with high PR sites know it - they get educated quickly by people asking for links all the time. So they get as skittish about linking as a mouse at a cat show.

Quality low PR sites, on the other hand, are often either aware of it and actively trying to improve their links (and thus open to reciprocal linking) or are oblivious. Sometimes obvlious is good, since they may be focusing on making a better site instead of PR. PR would naturally evolve from that, however.

Naturally, there are many sites that richly deserve PR0 or grey bar, but they are usually fairly easy to spot and avoid.

Think of what would happen to your PR is you had crosslinked with Yahoo or PHPBB when they first started out? PR didn't even exist, no one cared about it. But that link was valuable (assuming it was on topic) then and is valuable now - it's just easier to measure. And at one point no doubt (at launch) both of those sites would have had very low PR and would have been looking to get the word out.


Ian