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Pagerank Update went through two days ago.... And the verdic is...

The image “http://www.gerardkeegan.co.uk/resource/games/hangman2/hangman/hangman_6.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors. This morning brings news from around the web of losses to the Google Toolbar PageRank (the little green pixels displayed in the toolbar) for a myriad of sites. The best coverage I've seen comes from Andy Beard, as well as SEJournal and SELand (which has a comprehensive list of sites discussing the update).

If you didn't know already PR IS USELESS!!! ;-)

Seriously PR is just a pretty graphic for entertainment and now that is basically officially proven with the help of the lastest PR updates. Some of the largest websites ON THE INTERNET had their PR mostly slashed in HALF!...

I've gone through many of the threads and tried to pull together an accounting of websites that have been "reportedly" affected by the update. Hopefully, by collecting this data, and combining it with reports in the comments, we can have a relatively comprehensive view of the landscape and make educated guesses and hypotheses as to the root causes: The image “http://www.directtraffic.org/Images/200731233724/Google_PageRank_Toolbar_Export_&_Backlink_Update_in_Progress_large.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

www.autoblog.com PR6 > PR4
www.forbes.com PR7 > PR5
www.engadget.com PR7 > PR5
www.problogger.net PR6 > PR4
www.copyblogger.com PR6 > PR4
www.joystiq.com PR6 > PR4
www.tuaw.com PR6 > PR4
www.searchengineguide.com PR7 > PR4
www.seroundtable.com PR7 > PR4
www.searchenginejournal.com PR7 > PR4
www.johnchow.com PR6 > PR4
www.quickonlinetips.com/PR6 > PR3
weblogtoolscollection.com PR6 > PR4
andybeard.eu PR5 > PR3
www.volodymyrzablotskyy.com PR4 > PR2
daily.stanford.edu PR9 > PR5
www.thecrimson.com PR8 > PR4
www.statcounter.com PR9 > PR6
www.washingtonpost.com PR8 > PR5
www.blogherald.com PR7 > PR4
www.seopedia.org PR6 > PR5
weblogtoolscollection.com PR6 > PR4
www.masternewmedia.org PR7 > PR4
www.sfgate.com PR7 > PR5
www.suntimes.com PR7 > PR5
www.seo-scoop.com PR6 > PR3
spap-oop.blogspot.com PR5 > PR4
Onemansblog.com PR8 > PR5

Posted by Overland Park Real Estate :: Jordan M Mackey on 10/25/2007 06:51 PM

Comments (51)

pagerank, pr update, seo, search engine optimization, real estate seo

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51 Comments on Pagerank Update went through two days ago.... And the verdic is...

OCT

2007

Yo cuz, I see you couldn't resist commenting on the news either :-P

So, Jordan, for those of us not quite so into this please tell us what it really means and what we should be doing about it.

As Jordan states PR is useless. He was commenting on the fact that a bunch of websites have dropped in PR but that has changed nothing. Lots of wanna be SEO "experts" have been freaking out lately about the major PR drops, but when it comes down to it pagerank doesn't mean anything, Google is trying to get away from that and back to the days where it did mean something. Nothing other than that has changed though.

Jordan - Agreed. I don't understand why people make such a big deal about page rank. I have a new site that has a page rank of zero and it still ranks on page #1 in google for all of my search terms. Content is still king!

OCT

2007

Amen brothers and sisters. PR has mainly been about bragging rights, not SERPS. You can rank my sites as a PR0 all day long as long as people can find me on the search engines...

Bill - I plan on doing another article here in a day or so with some more tips and tricks.

James - Hehe Yup I hear yeah.

Jordan, thanks for the post. It was definitely all over the blogs today. Also, the bloggers at seomoz.org had some good posts on it as well.

OCT

2007

Jordan - Good info. Amazing on how much web stuff there is to keep up with. Hardly gives us enough time to sell real estate.

NOV

2007

I noticed yesterday that Homefinders.com went from a PR5 to a PR4. I'm working on it.

*&&%##%&*(*((^%%*((

Thanks for this info. I'm glad to find it's not just me.

Fortunately, my server stats are holding up.

NOV

2007

Well my PR rank went from 0 to PR2. I actually was expecting PR3, so a little bummed. Although I know PR doesn't matter, it did affect my linking with people. So I am just glad it got to PR2 so I don't have to deal with people that do not know better.

Stefan

NOV

2007

My PR dropped and I thought it was because I over optimized. It is good to hear that it was not me. As you guys have already said I am still ranked higher on a lot of keywords than my competition.

DEC

2007

Thanks for the info. More SEO news and updates are always appreciated! I would have to agree with a few other folks that no matter what, content is king! Good content focused around the keywords and search terms we are after will always help get us to the top of any search engine since that is what everyone still turns to search engines for. Quality links are a great help as well!

DEC

2007

I agree with the comment that page rank is totally useless. The only numbers I really care about are my conversion rates. Thanks for the news update.

JAN

2008

Jordan - As of this week, it looks like some of those websites gained a little back in the Google Foolbar.

FEB

2008

I am not sure why page rank is needed. When I type in 'myrt;e beach property', a top search phrase for our area, my site comes up on the first or second page of Yahoo and Google. If I am at the bottom of page 1 does that mean my PR is 10?

FEB

2008

Thank for the info...will keep up with your post

Patti Herrington

www.herringtonrealtyco.com

FEB

2008

Page rank is an important bench mark in the SEO world. I think as long as the content and keywords are there you can't go wrong!

MAR

2008

I glad someone actually said it. I for one never liked nor trusted PR.

MAR

2008

Content will always rule over PR. I get higher search engine results the more blogs I write

Thanks for the post. This information is important to some of us and we do appriciate it. Thanks

daniel

APR

2008

Interesting info. My knowledge of the whole SEO thing is still growing. I appreciate the info.

APR

2008

Jordan~ It is all so cofusing that even Google and all the SEO experts out there can't decipher what is going on.

MAY

2008

Content should be KING. Aren't you sick of websites full of links to other websites? Let's get to the point - CONTENT.

Thanks ..

MAY

2008

Content is king, i completely agree.

Don't kid yourself though, PR is important and helps you recognize sites that have potential to help you if they link to you. Ask anyone with good PR and they'll agree... ask anyone with PR0 and i'm sure they'll disagree. Same people who say money doesn't matter, they're the broke ones... and the ones it matters to do have money.

I see this blog was started over 5 months ago. Has anyone noticed any more changes to their PR since then?

JUN

2008

Thanks for the info.

John Powers

Selling Restaurants

www.restaurants4saleonline.com

JUN

2008

Jordan-

I am going to have to disagree with the group here. PR is very clearly a big part of Googles future plans. What we must understand is exactly what PR tells us or Google. PR weighs the trust of your site. Like it or not Google makes the rules and the valuations. If your inbound links are are not to Googles standards they will be discounted, thus a loss in PR. There are no short cuts in a link building programs only quality tools and contents will generate valuable inbound links. Anything else will ultimately be considered link manipulation and you will receive a sound Google slap. I dont like it but if you want to rank you must play by the rules. Google is to valuable to my business and the business of my clients to play risky games.

I also would say that content is queen and CONVERSION is king. It is not how much traffic you generate but what you do with it (ie email collection, client contact, prospect generation).

Just one marketers opinion, please filet as you see fit.

JUL

2008

PR mean very less for actual search results on google. Only good for exchanging links. I have seen 1000s of sites with low PR but top placement in Google results.

Jordan,

Thanks. I wholly agree. PR is of no value to making SEO decisions. Google created their own problems by publishing it in the frst place. Then everyone started gaming it.

If they would simply remove it from public consumption, we'd quickly return to linking for the sake of relevance only.

I removed the toolbar frm my computer years ago, and have had no need for it since.

JUL

2008

Clarification:

I will rescind my statement that PR has NO value in SEO. Certainly, a link from a PR9 site has genuine link juice. If you can get 'em, then do it.

They are also quite difficult to obtain for most agents. Telling agents to chase high PR links only is like telling most guys to only date beauty queens. They can try, but most of us will spend a lot of lonely nights that way (I got lucky, with my wife :). The same applies to with links.

My point was more along these lines.....forgte PR. Just get as many links as you can from relevant, legitimate websites. All else will usually fall into place. Focusing on PR is a real time waster.

JUL

2008

PR's are, overall worthless for your SEO. However, back links to sites that have a PR5 or higher can postively effect your SEO as google indexes. Check out www.seotools.com. Great resource for SEO improvement resulting in lead generation in lieu of just unique visitor traffic without quality return

AUG

2008

Interesting article. Looking forward to learning more about this.

How do you know what your PR is? Do you have to have the google toolbar to tell?

AUG

2008

hi all

not so quick to blow off PR in google.

It is not the only factor in where a site shows up in google .. that i agree on.

one of my clients sites has a page rank of 3 and dominates the burlington vermont market for all searches.

the second place site yahoo! pr4 and the third is another local competitor with a pr of 4.

they all have many more links to them so a higher page rank is expected.

buy my clients site has better content, and has better quality of links. and is better indexed.

the issue is how will the next update in Google effect the SERPS and will the PR start to play a bigger role?

I think Google has figured out a way to discard a lot of the link directory sites like linkmachine and others.

so don't be so quick, lets see what google does next.

i am a little paranoid but, to be a good SEO/SEM consultant should be. you have to think ahead to stay ahead.

thanks

clif

SEP

2008

I used to have a PR of 3 or so but then lost it all. My ranking have not been affected at all.

SEP

2008

Jordan, you are talking way over my head. If it weren't for the comments I wouldn't know what Pr WAS, or most of the information you gave...laymans's english please

OCT

2008

Thanks for the post, Jordon -- I'm still a bit of a novice here and I'm wondering how you determine your true PR. I've gone to HubSpot's website grader and they say that I have a google page rank of 2... is that the same thing?

NOV

2008

I have a page rank of 0 on all my pages for some reason that I still can't figure out, any help welcome, but I rank top 10 for all keywords and top 3 for many, so go figure!

JAN

PR means nothing, it's all about SERPs results.

and you get SERPS from inbound links from pages with PR

FEB

Very interesting stuff! I think it has to do with a shift in the google algorithm to traffic and bounce rate. We need to focus on this instead of of PR . Its a changing world out there!

FEB

Jordan: I am with Evelyn, you are talking way over my head. Too new at this.

Thanks for the info. I am sure in a couple of months all of these will make sens. I really, really hope so.

Tere

MAR

Jordan, thanks for the post - where should we go to compare the value of PR for say yahoo vs. google?

Content seems to still be the critical piece that drives specific types of potential clients to our pages over PR rankings but I'd love to hear your perspective on this

APR

Jordan,

I have been battling to get high PR on my sites but now I see that it is not important. I am on page one near the top for top search terms.

MAY

Does anyone use the Alexa rankings anymore? Not that I care, but I haven't heard anything about it for a while.

JUN

Yeah, it's messed up, I have a new website CasasEnUt.com that I've done almost nothing too and after the recent update it has a PR of 3! Yet, my page that ranks #1 in Utah for Homes for Sale in Utah has a PR of 2? Go figure.... I think my Homes4SaleInUtah site is more valuable.

JUN

Okay...you might as well be talking Chinese here..but what I gather is... don't worry about Page rank rating..as long as your site comes up with your key words..??? did I get that.?

OCT

Okay...you might as well be talking Chinese here..but what I gather is... don't worry about Page rank rating..as long as your site comes up with your key words..??? did I get that.?

IMO you need both to get search results. back-links with solid anchor text is key for ranking for those hard to get Google search results. Here is an example: Chino hills homes sales in August have dropped because of the limited inventory now available. Chino hills for sale?Homes in Chino Hills actually over sold in August.

The anchor text Chino hills for sale, gets 18,100 monthly searches in Google. First page results for HomeSalesChinoHills.com

And in this example I just created another back-link. Cheers

NOV

Hi Jordan; I had already noticed for awhile now that top ranking websites don't always have a high page rank!

NOV

Good post Jordan. I've picked up some valuable information. Thanks.

NOV

Good post Jordan. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.Here is my take on this SEO*&%^^^&. ther are no set standards it seems. Like economists if a group of SEO Experts in a room to make a decision they would all come out arguing. It's high time that this industry become more standardized

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