Google Page Rank
- Important Or Just Another Number?
In my last newsletter I wrote about how your websites Alexa
rating is not actually that important to the success of your
online business. In this issue, I want to look at another
popular statistic - Google Page Rank - and ask a similar question
- is it that important?
First a quick overview as to what the Google Page Rank actually
is...
Google Page Rank (or PR as it is often referred to as) is
simply an indication of the number of websites that link to
a specific website. It also attempts to indicate the quality
of those links. PR ranges from 0 to 10 (with 10 being the
'best' PR and 0 being the 'worst'). The vast majority of small
business websites will usually find they have a PR of between
0 and 5.
To calculate a particular sites PR, Google uses a fairly
complicated algorithm based on the number of web links that
it is aware of that link to the site in question. This algorithm
will also take into account the PR of the page that is providing
the link, thus a link from a web page that has a PR of 7 will
be considered more valuable than a link from a page with a
PR of 4.
Because of the way in which links from higher PR-ranked sites
are considered more important, many people are choosing to
buy links from websites with high PR's just so that they can
increase their own PR. I have seen sites selling a simple
text link on their home page for over $700 a month purely
based on the fact that they have a PR of 7 or above. This
may seem like a lot of money but when you consider that the
website owners that are buying these links often have websites
that are in no way relevant to the content of the site linking
to them, it is absolutely ridiculous.
Take this example, let's say you have a website about health
and fitness and you buy a link for $500 a month from a random
website because it has a PR of 7. This random website has
no relevance to your health and fitness site so what is going
to happen? Well, your own PR may increase as a result of the
link. You may get a bit of extra traffic but probably not
much since people don't click on links that that they are
not interested in. You will definitely be $500 poorer at the
end of the month!
Instead, why not spend the $500 on pay-per-click advertising
and benefit from some quality, targeted traffic?
Of course, there is a bit more to it than that and the reason
that most people want to increase their PR is because Google
takes this statistic into account when determining where a
website will be displayed in their search results. Many people
assume that a high PR automatically equals a high search engine
placement for their chosen keywords. Not so....
PR is just one of over 100 different factors that Google
takes into account when deciding where your website will feature
(and these factors and the main algorithm change on a very
regular basis). It is perfectly possible for a website with
a PR of 5 to get a higher ranking than a PR 7 site if it has
better content or is more relevant for the search term in
question.
Remember that relevance is all important with Google and
a link from a website that is not relevant to your own site
will be considered far less important than a relevant one
(which makes buying links from random sites purely because
they have a high PR even more crazy).
I have read several rumours lately that Google haven't updated
PR's for a couple of months and they are considering phasing
PR out or modifying it in some way. This is pure speculation
but it wouldn't surprise me in the least. PR is easily manipulated
(for example by purchasing links as described above) and Google
doesn't like to have their calculations or search results
manipulated. It stands to reason that they will be looking
at ways of preventing this.
So, in summary, is Google Page Rank important to your business?
Well, it is a good indicator of how many other sites link
to yours and how important Google considers your site to be
BUT I personally don't place too much importance on this statistic
and I certainly won't be paying out for a link from a website
just because it has a high PR.
As I said above, Google changes it's rules on a regular basis
and I see little point in chasing a particular PR on the basis
that it might get you higher search engine rankings. If Google
do decide to do away with PR, all your work will have been
for nothing.
Instead, concentrate on building quality, relevant links
from sites that are connected in some way to your own site
content. This will ensure that any traffic you receive via
these links will at least have an interest in your site. Building
links on this basis will automatically increase your PR over
time (without the need to pay out for overpriced, irrelevant
links). If you do things this way and Google does scrap the
PR indicator, it shouldn't affect you in any way and the links
you have in place will continue to benefit you.
Remember, in the same way that a low Alexa rating doesn't
guarantee traffic or sales, neither does a high PR. Sure a
high PR is a 'nice to have' but lots of traffic and high sales
is even nicer :-)
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