Devaluing PageRank
Google isn’t the only website that ranks websites. There is, ofcourse, the Alexa ranking and many others. Technorati ranks blogs as well as several blog directories. IZEA, the new parent company of PayPerPost, has announced RealRank for their bloggers to show an actual rank of blogs within their system. I’m sure there are many others and let’s not forget websites like Sitemeter and StatCounter that show all sorts of information for webmasters to study over for hours. While it’s a small start, one company has taken notice of the recent PageRank shift and has responded to the change with a huge decision.
Some companies use PageRank in calculating their own ranking of websites/blogs. Eatonweb is a well-known and respected blog directory. Earlier this month, they announced on their blog that the will stop using PageRank as a factor in determining the rank of blogs on their network. PageRank will be phased out within the next 12 months. They cited that the recent decision by Google to penalize websites with paid links was one of the reasons as some very good authority websites have received a penalty. Therefore, the PageRank system has been comprised if Google plans to shun certain websites from it.
It will be interesting to see if other ranking websites follow suit. I believe the PageRank has outlived its viability. A number 0-10 reveals very little about how trustworthy or how useful a website actually is.
If more ranking websites lessen their dependence on PageRank, it will be a clear message to Google. But if they actually care is anyone’s guess.
December 6th, 2007 at 11:33 am
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