Article in SEO

Every new webmaster (and even the novice internet user from my experience) worries about the importance of PageRank. Whether or not we tell them otherwise, forum members are always concerned about that little green bar on the Google Toolbar.

I guess they somewhat have to be. Until it goes away, PageRank is going to be an important concern.

But let me assure you that PageRank means nothing. Sure, Google uses it and explains PageRank as "a system for ranking web pages... [that] relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual's page value." What that means is that link equity somehow plays a role on Google PageRank. But according to Danny Sullivan, there are more factors that should be considered when measuring PageRank. First of all, he says, it is a score that represents Google's value of page importance, and again, that's usually by links. But there are other factors to be valued, including the context of a link, such as the anchor text.

In past experience, PageRank has meant nothing. When Google penalized sites that utilized paid listings in November of 2007, the number went down but the traffic remained the same. So consider this: why is the number important to you? Do you think it will bring you more traffic? Experience shows that it doesn't matter.

Another thing to notice is that the real Google PageRank is not the same as "toolbar" PageRank (that is, the PageRank you typically see on the Google toolbar). Toolbar PageRank is not measured in real-time. You might have a PR5 site, but that might be indicative of the links you built up several months ago. If your site becomes stale over time, with the next PageRank update, the number will reduce. So why stress about it when it's not a serious issue?

The point being is that PageRank is not the ranking factor in Google's algorithm. It's just a number and it's one of many different factors that Google accounts for in its algorithm. Just because you have a high number doesn't mean you're going to get better traffic than a lower-PR site.

Danny Sullivan summarizes this point very well in his Search Engine Land piece. He says, "If you really want to know what are the most important, relevant pages to get links from, forget PageRank. Think search rank. Search for the words you'd like to rank for. See what pages come up tops in Google. Those are the most important and relevant pages you want to seek links from. That's because Google is explicitly telling you that on the topic you searched for, these are the best."

That said, competitive analysis should start with how pages rank on Google (with personalized search turned off, of course!). Those are the pages you should try to solicit links from. PageRank is just a number and is hardly the metric to follow when seeking out relevant links for your area.

My advice is if you're really frustrated over PageRank: uninstall the toolbar and just focus on relevance and high rankings on Google. That's all that really matters for your link building efforts.

And if you're wondering why PageRank still exists, I think it has something to do with Google's co-founder, Larry Page.

by tamar