PageRank Update
Problogger is reporting confirmation from Google that some of the drops are indeed because of paid links. Some blog network websites have also taken a hit in PR.
I do obsess a lot about PR. I’m not sure why but is most likely because PR is a symbol of just how important a website is to the Internet. Well, in light of recent events, it’s really just how important it is to Google. I guess that’s been the case all along, but I was lulled into thinking that it was really something for the greater benefit of the Internet.
I’m disheartened but yet motivated at the same time by this last hit to PR. I did have two websites that increased in PR. Maybe it’s time to spend less time worrying with PageRank and focus more on breaking off my dependency to Google for search traffic. Next week we’ll take a look at some ideas for doing just that.
October 28th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Pagerank is dead. Period.
Pagerank is more dead than a rotting corpse, more dead than any teenager in Friday the 13th and more dead than those zombies in Resident Evil.
Does Toolbar Pagerank decide your search engine rankings? If this was true, then Engadget, Forbes would have seen at least 20-30% traffic drop by now. None of the sites which have their PR decreased have reported their rankings being dropped.
Will Google devaluate the link passing ability of websites with lower pagerank? Again if this happens then it will be Google itself who is going to suffer in the long run, because we all know Google’s alogorithm is solely dependent on backlinks. And punishing authority or strong sites, means gaming its own algorithm which I doubt Google will do.
And third for readers. How is this Pagerank important? Engadget has a Pagerank of 5 and Gizmodo has a Pagerank of 7 or 8 (Sorry I don`t have Toolbar installed). Does this means for a reader Gizmodo is way ahead of Engadget. I am sure this is something even the Gizmodo editors won`t agree to.
So the Pagerank is rendered useless for all three; webmasters, advertisers and readers. I would suggest people who still follow pagerank to please see the right picture, and move on.