Google Page Rank 2007 - Test Yours & Learn More

With all the hullabaloo surround the current/future/pending Google Page Rank Update / Catchup I thought I would round up some of the best advice about Google PR I’ve (quite literally) picked up on the net.

What is Google Page Rank?

First of all Page Rank only affects pages in Google’s “eyes”, not Yahoo or MSN.

“PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at considerably more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; for example, it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves ‘important’ weigh more heavily and help to make other pages ‘important.’ Using these and other factors, Google provides its views on pages’ relative importance.”

Eh????

OK - see below:

Graphic by Elliance, an eMarketing firm specialising in results-driven search engine marketing, website design, and outbound eMarketing campaigns. First sourced at Search Engine Land

What Is My Pagerank?

Well, it depends. On which DC (data centre). During an update it takes time for Google to roll out Page Rank. Thats why i prefer to use an online tool that will query multiple DC at the same time.

Powered by iWEBTOOL

What’s Page Rank Good For?

Page Rank used to mean a hell of a lot. Now, the opinion is divided as to what benefit being a high Page Rank site can bring. It’s generally accepted, the higher your Page Rank, the better chances your site has to succeed. Your site won’t ever get to 10 - accept it. The best you can probably hope for is a Page Rank 7 (like us).

Generally, a page with an ever increasing Page Rank is a healthy page / site. Basically, this shows other sites are at last linking to you. And the key to successful penetration in Google is after all links. I don’t think many would disagree with that.

But high PR isn’t the key to ranking better in Google, nor is it indicative of increased traffic from Google. In fact it has very little to do with either.

Matt Cutts mentioned recently PageRank is the primary factor determining whether a url is in the main web index vs. the supplemental results. Of course, many think this is spin of sorts, but it’s clear Google doesn’t think PR is totally useless, yet.

In my expereince it would appear having a high PR domain gets your site spidered more, but that could be more to do with my “trust” or “authority” status, or any number of other factors that signal a healthy site.

10 Page Rank FAQ Answers

1. If you install the Google Toolbar you will see a green indicator in your Internet Explorer / Firefox toolbar showing you the Google Page Rank of the page. Hovering over the green bar will give you a number which is the page’s Google Page Rank.
2. Google Toolbar / DC PR is not an accurate representation of your current Real Page Rank.
3. It’s accepted that the Green Toolbar Version of Page Rank is more than a few months out of date.
4. To get a higher Page Rank for your domain, you need to get a lot of other pages with PR to link to you.
5. Page Rank flows, and so can be manipulated, chanelled, blocked (with NoFollow) and screwed up.
6. Sites with higher PR often make money by selling links on their high Google Page Rank pages. If Google is aware that they are selling Google Page Rank rather than just selling ad space (don’t ask me how Google can tell the difference or if, indeed, they can) Google may penalize both the seller and buyer. This can take the form of lowering where you appear in the results but may not necessarily result in a downgrade of the Google Page Rank you see in the toolbar.
7. Remember sites don’t have Google Page Rank, pages do. That’s why it’s possible for an internal page to have a higher PR than the home page. The way a page gets Google Page Rank is from links to it and that’s the only way of improving Google Page Rank. IBLs (incoming backlinks) from high Google Page Rank pages can give you more Google Page Rank “Juice” than links from low Google Page Rank pages. There is one other factor at play. The Google Page Rank they “give” is spread over the number of outgoing links on the pages. You may get more Google Page Rank benefit from a Google Page Rank 3 page with only two outbound links than a Google Page Rank 7 page with hundreds of outbound links.
8. It looks as though there is a page rank update every 3 - 6 months - and not necessarily full updates. A short time ago only internal pages were updated - not home pages. One thing you can be sure off: When Google revises Google Page Rank the fastest way to discover it is at Digital Point.
9. There is a debate about getting rid of Google PR at Webmasterworld.
10. I’ve seen sites go from anywhere from PR 0 to PR 7 in one update.

Key Tip About Page Rank

Don’t obsess about it. It’s hard I know when your waiting for a new site to surface or a recently heavily promoted or search engine optimised site to be awarded new PR. Some see high Toolbar PR as kudos, some see it as pointless.

The key thing to remember about Google PR is:

“I should be doing something else to improve my site” rather than “what’s my Page Rank?”.

Too simple for you? Try this.

What Do I think?

I used to have a love affair with Toolbar PR, so I am a bit biased. I was credited at Webmasterworld for spotting the last one - I admit it, I was a DC Checker Addict. Nowadays, an increasing Toolbar PR, for me, is just one factor in an ever increasing healthy site.

Also, Page Rank is a good measure, for me, if a site is either new or spam ie i haven’t seen many spam sites with PR.

But instead of checking my PR I’m writing this article for your eyes and maybe even a couple of decent links or a bit of Stumble Traffic. Get my drift?

Hobo

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