14 replies to this topic

[ultimateai]

In Googles recent update most of my main pages moved up in page rank, my home page however remained the same. Anyone have any ideas as to why?

[Nathan Malone]

The pagerank that is shown in the Google toolbar is actually just a rough estimate of pagerank. Although your main page might not have higher pagerank according to the toolbar, it probably actually has some more in Google's algorithm calculations. Of course, this depends on your navigation structure and other things. Also, it is a lot harder to go from four to five then it is to go from three to four. The higher you go, the harder it gets to gain "visible pr".

[Nathan Malone]

BTW, I wouldn't worry about pagerank if i were you. Pagerank's only purpose is really just to get a higher ranking and if you rank highly with a pr of 0, then you have achieved your goal. I definately agree that having a high pagerank is good but it's not anything that I would waste a lot of time worrying over. Just build up QUALITY links to your site and the pr/higher rankings should come naturally...

[ultimateai]

The truth is, I'm not ranked well with any of my keyword with google. My most important keywords I don't even rank in the top 1000. I've been actively seeking good linking partners and making sure my copy is written well but still no results from Google.

[Nathan Malone]

Hmm. I would suggest making one more post to become an active member and then posting a site review request. In the meantime, if you want to post the url in your sig line, I would be happy to check it out and see what the problem is.

My guess is that
1. Either the keywords you are trying to rank high on are very competitive,
2. Your site's link popularity is too low for the keywords or
3. You are missing a vital part of seo, such as the title tag or the text in incoming links.

How long has your site existed? It usually takes a few months for any site to rank well.

[anthonyparsons.com]

Farmernate

Pagerank's only purpose is really just to get a higher ranking

That is not actually correct. PageRank has nothing to do with ranking itself. PageRank is only Google's measure of importance off your website, not ranking. You can have a PR1 website rank over a PR5 website for the same key term targeted by both. Google measures over 100 calculations of a website in order to rank it. PageRank is only good for Public Relations (PR) value. How much you can sell an ad and so on upon your website. That's what it does.

The better your phrase structure the better your rankings from Google. Links are always a part of every ranking structure, but only one part of the 100 from Google. Links are not to be confused with PageRank. Links make PageRank? Yes. Though, PageRank is developed from the analysis and quality of those links, not just quantity and text structure. PageRank is a guide to a websites importance, that's about it, nothing more, nothing less.

[qwerty]

PageRank has nothing to do with ranking itself. PageRank is only Google's measure of importance off your website, not ranking. You can have a PR1 website rank over a PR5 website for the same key term targeted by both. Google measures over 100 calculations of a website in order to rank it.

You've got a couple of contradictory statements in there, Anthony. PageRank does have something to do with ranking. As you say, it's one of the many factors that go into ranking a page, or to be more accurate, it's a representation of one of those factors.

What it comes down to is that PR matters, but it doesn't matter enough to worry about it. As a reflection of link popularity, it may serve as an indication that a given page which might not otherwise rank well has a lot of links pointing to it, or it may tell you that getting a bunch more links is likely to help you improve your rank, but I think everyone knows that much already. You don't need a little green gauge to tell you that you can always get more backlinks

[anthonyparsons.com]

True...thanks for that querty. I tend to do that when people start up abou how PageRank changes the world and determines where they rank in Google.

Oh, I must have a high PageRank to rank highly in Google. Always fun trying to tell them, No You Don't.

[Nathan Malone]

Sorry, I wasn't clear when I wrote that, I totally agree with you, I just didn't phrase my post right.

I think that we all agree that a pagerank 10 page has more potential for higher rankings then a pagerank 0 page does if the pr 10 page has quality links to it but I agree, if the pr 10 page isn't optimized very well and the pr 0 page is optimized well, the pr 0 page might very well outrank the pr 10 page (kind of extreme example but that's basically how it works).

Just remember that pagerank is only an indicator of how many links you have to your site, and therefore how high you have the potential to rank. The quality of the links, how related the pages are, what the pr of the pages that link to you are, the text in the links, and all the on-page seo plus tons of other things all work together to produce the results that you see on Google.

Anyway, the little green bar will show the same pagerank whether or not you look at it so you might as well save yourself some time by disabling it and just working on building up quality links...

[Jill]

The important thing to remember/understand about PageRank, imo, is that it's something that all pages have and get naturally as a result of making their site the best it can be.

If you strive for perfection in your Website and your particular niche, you will naturally have PageRank, and it will probably be pretty decent after a certain time.

A high PageRank doesn't happen quickly (although it can be manipulated to a certain extent), but it does come.

Raising PageRank should not be the goal of your search engine marketing campaign. It shouldn't even be considered.

The goal is increased targeted traffic that takes the appropriate action at your site.

Jill

[awall19]

Getting 1 or 2 powerful links from high pagerank sites will give your site a high pagerank. This pagerank will filter through your site and make it far easier for you to get other links from certain people who really concentrate on pagerank and think of it as being super important.

I can tell you many SEO firms have asked to exchange links with me, and part of that is that my site has an ok pagerank.

Is pagerank important - YUP.

Is pagerank the end all, be all - NOPE.

With that said, if you get (reciprocate, buy, naturally get, or rent) one or two strong links from pages with high pagerank AND are well integrated in the community of your topic then you will usually outrank other sites that only have a few links.

Page copy and page title are important. Being in the right community will help a bunch, but some people find link renting to be a successful endeavor. Even if you do decide to do that, it still helps a bunch in search engines like teoma for you to expend a bunch of effort integrating yourself in your topical community. As google gets more advanced the topical integration will most likely become a more important factor...

[1seo]

How do you define "high PR" 7 or 8? or 6? How high is high?

[awall19]

depends on the industry. generally most industries would consider a pr6 a good rank and a pr7 link a high pagerank link. pr8 would be really good stuff and pr9 takes some real hunting and be really really expensive. alltheweb is only a pr8 site...

[ultimateai]

awall,

Where might one look to find those renting links?

[anthonyparsons.com]

You can go to Link Adage and bid on them for a monthly fee or find them yourself and offer then a unique exchange. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, etc.

Jill is right on the money, make your site the best it can be and links come, PR comes, everything comes to those who build the best website and have some patience.

As I mentioned before and Awall summed up, PR value is a marketing hype and that's about all its good for.

Edited by Jill, 22 March 2004 - 09:27 AM.