Sep 17
Google PR Update Not Coming?
Out of nowhere, my friend Brad over at Do the Justice sent me an e-mail saying that there’s a rumble ’round the internet concerning the PR Update.
Mainly that there wouldn’t be one.
*groan*
Like just about everyone else in this web development game, I’ve been waiting on pins and needs for this update. Should you be worrying if it never comes?
The Story
From this post on Search Engine Roundtable, Matt Cutts says,
As far as the toolbar PageRank, I definitely wouldn’t expect to see it in the next few days. Probably not even in the next couple weeks, if I had to guess.
Since I really try to not rehash posts on other sites, I strongly suggest for you to go visit the post as it was pretty interesting but this begs the question…
What Does This Mean for You?
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your situation), a lot of money making ventures on the web place a tremendous amount of value into your Page Rank. Some advertisers like you to have a strong PR but for us bloggers, we see a lot of this in the sponsored posting companies we work with such as Pay Per Post for one.
Focusing on the Important Things
Even if the Google Page Rank Update never comes, that shouldn’t mean that you or I should stop doing the important things in regards to our websites. Think about it… Focusing on seo basics and other important web development techniques will ensure that no matter what kind of rank system comes up in the future, we’ll be all but ready to jump all over it. So while we’re all waiting, make sure you’re doing the following:
- SEO Basics – You know the deal – Making sure your titles are good, keyword and description meta tags are concise and contain your keywords, making your code neat so spiders have no problems finding content, anchor text, et.
- Incoming Links – Making sure that you have a ton of incoming links is crucial in establishing authority with search engines. And if you’re targeting certain keywords (which you should be doing), make sure you have that in the link text too!
- Content – Content is still king right? Well, give your visitors a reason to come back! And YOU KNOW there’s nothing that looks better to your readers than frequently updated content that’s interesting and useful.
September 17th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Ironically, I was a bit afraid my blog’s PR might drop form 5 to 4, so hearing this news is good. It gives me a little bit of time to build up my incoming links some more.
That being said though some of my other web ventures are still PR0, so an update to get them into the ‘green’ on the PR scale would be nice.
Let’s hope this is simply a ‘delay’ and not something more permanent.
September 17th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
I thought this was going to happen. I check with Matt Cutts now and again and over the past few months some of the things he said indirectly made me realize this was in the works.
I mentioned this on someone’s website a few months ago. I cannot remember whose it was now. It will be interesting to see if some of the other “wild guesses” I’ve said are true.
I can see a lot of ways why this is a good thing, from Google’s point of view, based on quite a few schemes I have seen going on in the blogosphere which artificially have boosted rankings.
Am I waiting on the upcoming PR ranking? Absolutely not. I really don’t want to be dependent on “almighty Google” to determine my online business and I’m hopefully marketing my websites ; accordingly. Thankfully I don’t have to depend on them. Up until May, I didn’t know what PR or SEO was, and my online business did very well. Actually it’s still doing well.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
What’s funny is that even if they do remove pagerank altogether, you can bet that they’ll replace it with something else.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
@Apex – Yeah, it’d be nice if I had a bit more time to work on my PR, but I guess going with what Opal is saying in the following comment, it kinda sucks to be so dependent on one thing. I mean, I gotta focus on everything else that is probably a lot more important.
@Opal T – Before I started blogging, I used to focus on SEO and the big G a lot more than I do now (which is ironic since I pour so much work into my blog). At that time, I used to follow what Cutts said a lot more closely too. I think Cutts might be our Alan Greenspan. Ha ha.
@Brown – *GROAN* You’re so right. And inevitably, ppl are going to learn how to abuse that too. Oh, the CIRcle of LIIIIIIFE!
September 18th, 2007 at 1:21 am
That sucks. I am dying over here. I once upon a time had pagerank of 2. I lost all that moving to my new domain. I am tired of this big fat 0. I’m looking at sites every day with half of what I have sporting a PR3 and I don’t understand it. Oh well, I will continue working onward and using an arsenal of techniques I learned form you, Brown Baron, Mike, Aaron and Court, on every post.
Do you know much about algorithms? Google has the top researchers available. They acquired Guido van Rossum the designer of the python language, who in my opinion is one of the smartest men alive (comes from a long lineage of Swiss watch makers, imagine how that affected his language). Google is heavily Linux oriented. I believe they have a new algorithm. Something so powerful and complex, it is scary. We shall see coming up, hopefully within the next few months!!!!!
September 18th, 2007 at 5:43 am
Personally I think too many bloggers think too much about Google. Sure, if you use PPP or other advertising it can mean a cash difference, however content is so much more important than that, and Google has made people go from intelligent writers to seo-crackheads.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:21 am
I don’t see why everyone is stressed… if they stop Pagerank, then the weight of PR eventually goes away. There are too many new sites popping up every day that will forever have a rank of 0. PPP will have to find new standards because its users with PR 0 will constantly increase.
September 18th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Thats really bad news . I was waiting eagerly for it .
July 17th, 2008 at 10:39 am
What’s funny is that even if they do remove pagerank altogether, you can bet that they’ll replace it with something else.