Google PageRank: Not Worth the Worry
In the wahm forums and groups the need to understand page ranks have been a pretty hot topic. I found an advertising company on-line that would pay me $5 per purchased advertised link because at the time I had a PR4. I figured why not, it helps to pay the bills, lol . . . besides I was able to choose the websites that could add their links to this section of my website.
This sample does mean a high PR will net you the ability to request higher advertising dollars for your high PR valued real estate space on-line. But I can attest to the fact that my advertising clients don't really care about the PR of my website, the usual question is where I place in Search Engine results and what are the keywords.
Yes, Page Ranks are important but it depends on who you talk to. Some would say that a listing in the top page of Search Engine results is most important while others think a PR3 is not as good as a PR4 website.
The article below will hopeful help to explain what a Page Rank is and why you shouldn't be too pre-occupied with it.
Google PageRank: Not Worth the Worry
By John Metzler
I notice that a lot of webmasters are obsessed with Google PageRank (Entire sections of SEO forums are even devoted to PR). Web sites do not live and die by their PageRank. A PR 6 web site may rank lower than a site with a PR 5 due to other Search Engine Optimization factors. Search engine results are not proportional to a web site's PageRank value.
The PageRank value is a representation of a web site's internal and external link structure. Internally, your web site's pages should be easily accessible from each other and use anchor text relevant to the theme of the web site. Externally speaking, outbound links should be good quality and/or relevant to your web site's content. And finally, it is widely known that incoming links also contribute quite a bit to PageRank. There is obviously much more to achieving good search engine rankings that the above linking strategies.
With that being said, many webmasters become obsessed with the PageRank of their web sites and consider it to be the bottom line of any search engine marketing campaign. This type of thinking can cloud a much more important issue of whether or not the client has seen an improvement in search engine placement and web site traffic. Always base your achievements on specific rankings for keywords that have been well-researched. If you go parading around about achieving a PageRank of 6 for your client, he or she won't care if they aren't seeing a return on their investment, now will they?
If you're working to increase your link popularity through reciprocal links and refuse to link to web sites that are lower than PR 5, rethink your strategy. Well-designed, well-ranked sites with informative content are always a safe bet to link out to. That was my basic strategy with a client of mine, www.1bbweb.com.
They have a PageRank 4 (at the time of writing this article, January 2005) and rank at #6 on Google for 'bed and breakfast directory' (without quotes). The #7 result has a PR 6 and the next three spots in the first page of results are PR 5 web sites, all higher than my client. This example is repeated throughout the Web and proves that preoccupying yourself with PageRank can result in losing sight of more important ranking factors.
An expert at organic SEO, John Metzler has held executive positions in the search engine marketing industry since 2001. He is the President of FreshPromo, a Canadian-based SEO firm.
My notes:
In the second paragraph the article states "The PageRank value is a representation of a web site's internal and external link structure. Internally, your web site's pages should be easily accessible from each other and use anchor text relevant to the theme of the web site."
I want to dissect this statement a bit. If the PR value is indeed representative of your link structure then this is the reason why many websites do not go beyond a PR#2.
I have seen many websites where there aren't any relevant anchor text to their internal or external links. Many also do not create their navigation to make it easy for their visitors to manuever around on their sites. I'm talking about those sites that have external links the loads into the same browser or internal links that loads into a new window or links that take you completely to another section of their website and you can't find a link to get back to where you were without clicking on your "Back" button at the top of your browser page.
Aside from site navigation that makes sense, optimizing your webpage with topic specific keywords and content as well as providing relevant content go hand in hand. I've seen some websites that weren't very pleasant to look at, but guess what, when I did a search I landed on their website because they were at the top of the search engine results.
Take my website for instance:
The Work At Home Business Mall was a PR3 before I launched it. It stayed as a PR#4 for several months and now it is a PR#5. When I did my SEO for the site it raised my PR one more value.
Site navigation for a site that is full of information and resource is difficult, but it can be done. PR values are important but not as important as being on the top page results of any search engine.
Good luck with your website and until next time, "here's to your success on-line!"
This sample does mean a high PR will net you the ability to request higher advertising dollars for your high PR valued real estate space on-line. But I can attest to the fact that my advertising clients don't really care about the PR of my website, the usual question is where I place in Search Engine results and what are the keywords.
Yes, Page Ranks are important but it depends on who you talk to. Some would say that a listing in the top page of Search Engine results is most important while others think a PR3 is not as good as a PR4 website.
The article below will hopeful help to explain what a Page Rank is and why you shouldn't be too pre-occupied with it.
Google PageRank: Not Worth the Worry
By John Metzler
I notice that a lot of webmasters are obsessed with Google PageRank (Entire sections of SEO forums are even devoted to PR). Web sites do not live and die by their PageRank. A PR 6 web site may rank lower than a site with a PR 5 due to other Search Engine Optimization factors. Search engine results are not proportional to a web site's PageRank value.
The PageRank value is a representation of a web site's internal and external link structure. Internally, your web site's pages should be easily accessible from each other and use anchor text relevant to the theme of the web site. Externally speaking, outbound links should be good quality and/or relevant to your web site's content. And finally, it is widely known that incoming links also contribute quite a bit to PageRank. There is obviously much more to achieving good search engine rankings that the above linking strategies.
With that being said, many webmasters become obsessed with the PageRank of their web sites and consider it to be the bottom line of any search engine marketing campaign. This type of thinking can cloud a much more important issue of whether or not the client has seen an improvement in search engine placement and web site traffic. Always base your achievements on specific rankings for keywords that have been well-researched. If you go parading around about achieving a PageRank of 6 for your client, he or she won't care if they aren't seeing a return on their investment, now will they?
If you're working to increase your link popularity through reciprocal links and refuse to link to web sites that are lower than PR 5, rethink your strategy. Well-designed, well-ranked sites with informative content are always a safe bet to link out to. That was my basic strategy with a client of mine, www.1bbweb.com.
They have a PageRank 4 (at the time of writing this article, January 2005) and rank at #6 on Google for 'bed and breakfast directory' (without quotes). The #7 result has a PR 6 and the next three spots in the first page of results are PR 5 web sites, all higher than my client. This example is repeated throughout the Web and proves that preoccupying yourself with PageRank can result in losing sight of more important ranking factors.
An expert at organic SEO, John Metzler has held executive positions in the search engine marketing industry since 2001. He is the President of FreshPromo, a Canadian-based SEO firm.
My notes:
In the second paragraph the article states "The PageRank value is a representation of a web site's internal and external link structure. Internally, your web site's pages should be easily accessible from each other and use anchor text relevant to the theme of the web site."
I want to dissect this statement a bit. If the PR value is indeed representative of your link structure then this is the reason why many websites do not go beyond a PR#2.
I have seen many websites where there aren't any relevant anchor text to their internal or external links. Many also do not create their navigation to make it easy for their visitors to manuever around on their sites. I'm talking about those sites that have external links the loads into the same browser or internal links that loads into a new window or links that take you completely to another section of their website and you can't find a link to get back to where you were without clicking on your "Back" button at the top of your browser page.
Aside from site navigation that makes sense, optimizing your webpage with topic specific keywords and content as well as providing relevant content go hand in hand. I've seen some websites that weren't very pleasant to look at, but guess what, when I did a search I landed on their website because they were at the top of the search engine results.
Take my website for instance:
The Work At Home Business Mall was a PR3 before I launched it. It stayed as a PR#4 for several months and now it is a PR#5. When I did my SEO for the site it raised my PR one more value.
Site navigation for a site that is full of information and resource is difficult, but it can be done. PR values are important but not as important as being on the top page results of any search engine.
Good luck with your website and until next time, "here's to your success on-line!"
posted by C. T. Morgan @ 5:41 PM
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