Google PageRank - The thing is...
Published: 5th May 2007
During the past few years, a great many Search Engine
Optimisers have been emphasising the importance of Google
PageRank as a leading factor in any web site’s overall
search engine performance. The main problem with this
approach to SEO is that Google PR really plays a relatively
minor role when a web page is assessed for overall relevance
to its topic.
In our article about Greenbar
Madness from September
2006 we pointed out that, if Google PageRank were the
only factor in assessing a site’s relevance to any
given search term, users would always find the highest
PR sites at the top of their search results, with PR gradually
shrinking as the user moved further down the list.
This fact is demonstrated quite simply by visiting Google
and searching for a keyword or phrase of your choice.
In the vast majority of cases, you will find that, although
high PageRank web sites are featured in the top ten results,
there are usually a fair number of lower PR sites to be
found in amongst these.
Why is this?
As Google’s Matt Cutts has pointed out on a number
of occasions, including in this
entry over at Librarian Central, Google PageRank is
only one of many factors used during the assessment of
a web site’s overall relevance to its topic and
related search terms.
The simple fact is that, as far as Google is concerned,
relevance is the key.
This is why, although PR does play a minor part in the
assessment of relevance, it is far outweighed by a site’s
overall structure, content quality, code and, last but
not least, by whether or not the site in question violates
Google’s
Webmaster Guidelines in any way.
Whilst quite a few operators in the SEO industry have
been busily concentrating on convincing prospective clients
of the little green PR bar’s magical powers, those
same operators have been largely ignoring overall quality
standards since, in the words of one search engine optimiser:
“Nobody pays attention to those [Google Webmaster
Guidelines] since Google themselves don’t use half
the stuff when indexing web sites.”
The operative word here should have been ‘Yet’.
Judging by some of the questions asked over at Google
Webmaster Help, it would appear that the search engine’s
latest algorithm upgrade, along with changes to the way
PageRank is actually assessed, have finally brought Google’s
ability to actually enforce its quality guidelines in
its SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) up to speed.
The only sensible advice in this matter is to pay less
attention to the Google PageRank bar and far greater attention
to the above quality guidelines. After all, the little
green bar is really only a reflection of a site’s
link popularity, nothing else.
Google PageRank is only one of many factors which determine
ranking
|
Articles 
