Search Engine Optimization

There seems to be a lot of buzz around new Google Page Rank update. Though not yet confirmed, many webmasters are noticing changes in their pagerank.

Last update rolled out at the end of the November, primarily targeting link selling websites.

Major SEO publications have not picked up on it yet and will probably stay quiet until Monday, however here are some forum recaps and comments that people experienced. If it isn’t a major page rank update, at the very least it is a select PR adjustment.

Webmaster Word Forums:

– "My site went from a PR4 to a PR0 overnight. It wasn’t just the index but every page on the site."

Digital point Forums:

– "My graybar site went to 3, so it’s definitely happening."

– "My Webdirectory MainPage doesn’t change. But my submit.php went 0 to 3"

- "My forum jump from N/A to PR2 today. However, nothing happen with the main site yet or maybe I get the same PR’

– "My site when from PR2 to PR3."

Another Thread on Digital Point:

- "Yey yey.. mine is now at pr4 from pr3"

– "My site jumped from PR2 -> PR3 .. actually smartpagerank’s toolbar shows me 3 .. but digpagerank shows me 2 still .. so i don’t kno =P"

Continued with more then 20 page rank update reports

Apart from speculated pagerank update, Google seems to be tweaking its SERPs.

Digital Point Thread:
- "I saw a huge jump from position 9 on first page to 2 for my top two keywords and then dropped again (still on first page though). Others seem to be jumping all over."

- "Yeah, a couple of my sites are starting to have their PR jump around. An update may be coming."

– "I’m seeing serps going all over the place not seeing any change in pr though."

Though this is not confirmed, at least the pagerank issue has critical mass in place as of 11.01.2008

It may a little while for the official statements to break out, but the digital point forums have been swarmed with page rank update threads. This PR update will most likely be a regular roll out, while the previous one was targeted at a very specific group.

Does Page Rank matter?

It seems that PR does not have as much weight as it used to. First off, because Matt stated it usually represents past data, secondly it doesn’t affect the actual search placement. Page Rank in itself is an invention by which Google calculates the incoming links(site value), but due to a number of factors, public toolbar version of pagerank has lost some of its weight.

A number of websites selling links used and continue to use PR as an indicator of the website ranking power, so page rank has weighty marketing value.

Apart from link market, Page rank stays an important indicator to many people, as some of the digitalpoint forum participants put it:

- "customers have Google Toolbar installed, and when they don’t see the green bar – they think the site is new and not trustworthy…"

- "You just hit the nail right on the head with a very big mallet. Twice.
It’s a known fact if users have the Google Toolbar installed and see the exact same product on two sites, exact same price including delivery, the consumer will always buy the product from the site with PageRank. It’s a fact."

Regardless, Page rank always manages to send storms through SEO community. Whether PR has weighty value or not, stays a fierce debate of viewpoints, but a tweak from 5 to 6 definitely adds that classy touch, especially in the eyes of savvy customers.

We will definitely update on the upcoming PR development that will unfold over the weekends.

Are you wondering when the next Google update will occur?

The last one occured at the middle/end of October 2007.

I personally think the update will occur near the 20th of January.

I would appreciate your feedback on this update. Do you think it will be a PR update?

I hope so. A PR6 would be a pretty good start for 2008!