Did you get slapped by the recent Google Smackdown? And if so, how hard?

My website had a PR4 for at least 4 years. It dropped to PR3 previous update and stay down the last time. Also my internal pages dropped by 1PR and some to zero but my traffic increase and have better search ranking.

So, PR don’t mean a thing.

I think it makes it harder for me to launch some SEO based products, and we still haven’t got 100% clarity from Google.

Google still buy sponsorships without requesting nofollow, Yahoo still sells links, people can still charge for publishing press releases.

Whilst I haven’t seen any drop in traffic yet, it might still happen.

The penalties were not applied universally, and even blogs I know Google engineers read were not given penalties.

It is not over til the fat lady sings…

I’m so knew I don’t have any idea what an “interior landing page is”. So this infor on page ranking is very helpful as it has indicated to me that there is one less thing I will need to worry about. Thank you.

You’re right Jim,

Just keep building great content page by page and let the search engines worry about the rest. I use to worry about Google and all the other search engines until I started watching their sudden page drops and traffic slow downs and slowly everything starts coming back better than it was before they dropped everything. It’s like playing the stock market, some days you win some days you just have to hang in there. As long as you feel you’re doing the best you can to keep things white hat there’s no sense in worrying.

Patricia

Well… I had been on roller coasters with black hat, grey hat and white hat sites, and one thing is for sure: what matters is that your pages rank well for the given keywords that convert to leads or sales.

I mean the page rank stuff even puts big pressure on PayPerPost that is actually a great system to monetize your blog, and I personally find it absurd how Google fights for “content for pay” and “linking for pay” with page ranks to zero or other silly detention strategies to silent their competitors. (I mean come one Google is the biggest “link for pay” after all.)

But hey it is their game.

I tend to see income coming in from pages that rank sometimes low or do not have any page rank at all, as long they get keyword traffic. And nichebot.com is quite a good way to stay on top of things.

Semmy Stumpp
Without Fun There Is No Success!
http://www.semmy.name

I too look at PR as a vanity thing… all I care about is that my pages are indexed and some of the them find there way into the top 3 or 4 pages of search results.. closer to the top the better…

I did notice since this latest update a few of my better sites (traffic wise) are getting a lot less traffic…

Joe

No effects here – or on our client’s sites – with the Google Page Rank. We look at PR about once or twice a month. There are too many other important SEO factors to worry about rather than Page Rank. Thanks for the information! Steve

It would be nice to have links, but think I could get one good one would be nice! especially for climate change,
I got so PO”D with google and their page rank system and their adwords, I told them and their managment how stupid and blind they are. Haven’t heard back from them. I told them they should stop playing stupid games with this human race and help guys like myself who are trying to raise funds for research and ass’s like them charge money while this planet sufferes and guys like myself try to do some honest research and they are hindering what should be done. Told them they really are blind. And I held not back. If it was not for people who do something from the love of our hearts for our fellow man , We would not be here. They should do all they can to help. Told them they were the blind leading the blind. Wonder whay excusse they will come up with. David Chura , http://www.magneticenergy.ca research for climate change and global warming.

Jim,
Your advice to not let your site’s PageRank be a mood level indicator is advice to live by. We just can’t let things that we have no control over altering our moods…..

Ted

My pr stayed the same on my main site and my blog. Plus I saw page rank go up in interior pages, so I can’t complain. Plus I don’t have any paid links, so that helped.

I noticed that articles I had written went from 350 search results down to 5, the original count of unique articles I had sent out. So the entire database got de-duped. Maybe that’s why PR dropped unevenly.

I saw one site go from a PR5 to a PR4. Not really sure how it was even at a PR4. This site just has a couple of pages which have not even changed for about 5 years. It was just sitting there doing nothing.

Our new site is fairly new, I was told to expect a PR4 – PR8, but it started with a PR0 and is not a PR1.

I’m inclined to agree with Joe, what is most important is coming out in the first few results when someone actually searches for your keywords.

But it is a bit exciting when things change (up or down).

I was a bit disappointed when I noticed a drop for some of my sites a couple of weeks ago.

Curious, I checked PR again before writing this post and had quite a laugh…

One of my sites had shot up to a PR8 (previously a PR1 or PR2 – maybe even a PR0).

Too funny. I’m sure it’s all part of the upheaval.

Search wise I’m not coming out any higher (with that site) for the big key words, but am looking good for my more targeted key terms.

…It does remind me a bit of watching the stock market…

There are so many factors in regards to building a website which will attract visits. Page rank is only one part of the whole. Having a blueprint which encludes LSI, great internal link building, external inbound linking, etc I beleive should be everyones focus. Dedication in this area will always bring rewards.

More is accomplished in 12 hours of “White Stratagies” than 12 hours in “Black Hat”. PR is only on small piece of the puzzle.

Thanks for your insights as always Jim!

My index page and blog were PR4 and 5 respectively. For no reason my blog’s now at 3 and index page…numero zero!

Some people say the weather’s like a woman whose mood always changes. Haha, but I digress.

Jim is right, man. Mood or no mood, I still have to get the money because $$$ has NO MOOD.

I still hear people get so obssessed with PR and Alexa. Looks like I’m past that oredi, which is good

For your info, the number of indexed links and backlinks on Google have not changed much; they are increasing in fact, so is my traffic count. AdSense earnings begin to take a dip.

I suggest netrepreneurs expand/diversify with more sites and unique angles of content to complement their key business and activities.

Wow, I am relieved, I was baffled by going from PR4 to PR0 over night when nothing had changed. We were in the middle of a promo,getting traffic and gone. However we are taking the site off line as sales are marginal,loosing money every week. Still learning and not sure how to use the blog on a retail site. Thanks for the encouragment.

I did not loose any page rank but my search position did go down a few. Is there a way to prevent the down on ranking.
Thanks

EA

I meet the last day a link partner who deleted my link from his site because i was affected after the last PR update (from GPR4 i received GPR3). It’s really a stupid mood to exchange links thinking at the PR. I’m sure the page rank value at this time is only 0 (zero). It’s more like an Award for your linking work. That don’t mean if you have GPr4 or 5 you are a big fish..maybe you will have more link exchange partners or you will can to sell some links at highest prices but for the SE without quality content your Page rank value 0!

I’ve actually experienced an increase in PR corelating to about the time Google altered it’s PR algorithm. I’m sure they acted in the knowledge that they will be creating a system for Page Rank which is more true to reality of the web than the previous one had been.

Great article, Jim!

You’re absolutely right. There’s much more to a website than it’s page rank.

If traffic and conversions are increasing, but page rank is decreasing, who cares?

It’s about results, not page rank.

Cristian

Professional Audios for Internet Marketers
http://www.VoiceOverPal.com/

I noticed it happen cause I went from PR4/PR3 all through my site to PR0 BUT my traffic went way up. Go fig? Not changing anything I am doing I am sure it will be back.
One thing I am curious about is, links for ads that are not Google adsense, is that a problem causer?

Hey Jim,

Great post about Page Rank. I have to agree with you about not living and worrying about PR. All things being equal it comes down to 2 main factors. High quality unique visitor driven and value driven content, and a consistent linking strategy. I have spent my days following and then joining one of the best linking experts online, Jack Humphrey, for about 3 years. One of his motto’s…VALUE TRUMPS WASTE everytime.

The only point with you i dare pick a bone with…is about the statement you made about posting 1 or 5 times a day, it doesnt really matter…I guess my point on that would be whatever you do, do it consistently. If you are going to build 1 link a day, than build 1 link a day…if you are going to build 20 links a day, than in 4 weeks you should maintain that consistency for the most part.

Thanks for the great post again, it is spot on…

Sam

I like your attitude Jim. They will do what they do no matter what you do.

“it’s a formula that Larry Page and Sergey Brin (founders of Google) came up with to rank websites according to popularity”

Isnt there a strong court case right now saying they didnt come up with it all? Thought I read something like that at webmasterworld.

–Kenn
Hi Semmy!

Not much PR affected this time… i am seeing marginal increase in traffic for the last few days.

PG

Hi guys n gals… A Big Point worth mentioning about taking SEO too seriously??
Could it be about the feeling of vanity this pops in to my mind … yes NO:1 just the feeling … be honest with yourself … once you see your site tripping up those SEO page-rankings a vanity-feeling of satisfaction is the first feeling that strikes most webmasters online I dig it so much to …

It reminds me of my first real gush as a young lad getting my first new bike … then again when I had served my time as a tradesman and branched out on my own with my own business by working for my self I needed a van I bought a second hand van BUT as soon as I had my name and phone number painted on the side of that van the buzz I got was of a so sooooo proud nature I really thought I had made it … then after lots of had work with lots of referrals success followed and income seems to stick to that formula … even with my 4th and 5th new and even bigger vans that feeling never left me

So its the same method online that works offline feeling of trust and respect the internet is over-brimming with customers treat them with respect through your website websites are just front doors to your shop be it information or products Google thrives on respect there mantra and or mission statement is “NO EVIL” … they simply want to be the best “Searched Engine” and will use there big stick to make sure they stay the best and if you take the time to check out all of there products they are very very helpful to assist you on being the BEST you can help them to help you…

Respect and Regards
Phillip Skinner

I lost a PR in the recent update and I’m still holding onto my #1 long tail keywords position in the Majors. Not too long ago, I made a promise to myself to stop following my PR and start offering more to my website visitors.

Great Article

I felt the best thing I ever did was turning OFF the page rank tool bar. Yes Virginia you can live without it. It is like an addication at first. You just wanna keep going back but with will power, you and your pages will survive.

I feel the only concern a marketer should have is to keep posting Quality content to their sites. Let google play their games.

The only way I knew about this topic was you told me about it.

LOl

What I don’t understand is the mis-information going around… such as mass-penalizations which is total baloney.

This update was the result of google attempting to discredit PR in such a way that buying and selling links based on PR would be much harder… there was no mass penalizations… if there were I would know about it cause I consult many sites including webmasters who do buy links for rankings(I tell them what to do, they don’t always listen, its there money)

Fortunately for me I do not depend on paid links so a PR drop does not influence my link building campaign at all… it has actually made it harder for some of my competitors which is okay by me.

Basically the uproar is way out of proportions, again many people are passing bad information on what really happened here.

About 9 months ago I decided to go natural, take a natural approach to seo and since I have found it to be the easiest, fastest and funnest method. I don’t have to worry about getting penalized because of paid links cause I don’t use them…

Randy

The displayed PR for several of my sites went down, some stayed the same, and a few increased. However what is important is that traffic to my sites either stayed even or increased.

Some people have commented that the important thing is to keep building content rich pages. That’s certainly true but you need more than that to get traffic… backlinks!

My sites all went up or stayed level, so I’m not complaining.

The key to their PR progress seems to have been the steady addition of one way links.

BUT that the sites with most genuine original content get more traffic – regardless of page rank.

My sites with duplicate content get very little traffic even where they have decent page rank (thanks to link building).

The other factor that is stands out is that the sites with content for keywords having less competition clearly do much better for traffic than content with more competition.

Bottom line – content is king for longtail niches with less competition. If you can get page one SERPS all good things will follow.

But don’t waste effort building original content for competitive keywords. If you can’t get a top ten ranking for the keyword then you won’t see much traffic.

Steve Henderson, Publisher
Safe weight loss strategies for overweight teenagers

QUOTE
Kim Snyder @ 11:17 pm:
***********************************************************
I noticed it happen cause I went from PR4/PR3 all through my site to PR0 BUT my traffic went way up. Go fig? Not changing anything I am doing I am sure it will be back.
One thing I am curious about is, links for ads that are not Google adsense, is that a problem causer?
***********************************************************

Kim – I can’t remember ever seeing any adverse effect from links to ads other than Adsense. Nor seeing any reference to such an effect in any SEO literature, forums etc.

One correlation I’ve long suspected is that running ads on Adwords might help quick indexing of the target site. Has anyone else noticed that?

Nevertheless, there are plenty of other (free) ways to get indexed fast (e.g. directory and bookmark site entries). So I wouldn’t advocate spending on Adwords for any reason other than quick, targeted, darned expensive traffic.

Regards,
Name_forgotten

Well, in fact I personally didn’t get affectedt too much, but one of my client’s domains dropped out, despite the fact, that I use totally white hat measures to optimize my clients. The reason, as to my beleaves are as follows:

My client had 2 domains, -one was english, the otherone in german. Now, on the english-search, you can’t find the german site, nore can you find the english site in the german search any longer, even though, the company has two headquarters in europe, -one governing the english and european market, one just the german. I believe, google is getting more concerned about de-valuing links from other language sites, in order to get more and better related content

Are there any nichbot meetings in LA?
I am building a nwe website,well i actually hired someone and need help with the seo part of it…

Thanks! I have one long running ad thats not google adsense.
But I have had it for months so its not like its going to be the cause now, I was just wondering.
I just keep adding content and I am sure it will return. The PR seems to matter most to those who want to link with you not your site itself.

I quite worrying about PR a year ago or so. I have one site that has 50 static pages of links and some sporadic RSS feeds – that’s it. Some of the pages have over 50 links on them. Yet consistently I have been receiving at least 1200 unique visitors each and every day for the past three years. The PR on these pages have gone anywhere from 0 to 5, but the organic traffic has always stayed at an average 1200 per day.

These pages contain text links that people are searching on everyday – they would be considered “long-tail”. But they give people what they are searching for, and the search engines (all 3 majors) like sending people to them. And for those who don’t find what they need, they click on the adsense and give me about $400/month in revenue. So everybody’s happy, and there’s no junk on these pages. The interesting part is that the pages have stayed basically the same without too many updates the past three years – so that kind of goes against the fresh content theory in some ways too.

Enjoyed your post – thanks! Cris

seems a little bit tricky for the google logistics

Pagerank do vary a lot on its each update. One of my PR1 sites dropped to 0, BUT one of my PR0 sites jumped directly to PR4, that was rather shocking, however, I never paid attention to PageRank, I just use some tools to check my search engine positions, ‘that’ is what counts. PageRank is just a fast way to determine the “importance” of a site in case one wants to buy it/link to it/document from it etc. But at the end, PageRank DOES have a purpose and it *is* a way to see that a site has its importance in search engines and that other people are willingly linking to it, perhaps due to link exchange or just the fact that they enjoyed the site and useful resources are in it. But once again, seek your search engine positions, not the ranking
One more example I can give here:
A certain website with PR1 can show up in the first page of search engines on some keywords and a PR3 website can show in page 2 or 3 on its keyword. So throw your PR worries away and concentrate on your positions and note that titles and keywords are most important. I won’t get into many details, like, fresh content? a LOT of it?

Cheers

Well, I love looking at my page rank on various pages of my site, but for me, it’s always just been for fun. I just keep plodding away, adding more and more content and although i don’t have a HUGE page rank, I certainly have lots of my pages on the first 2 pages of Google and other search engines. For me that is where the gold is. Thanks for a great article – heartening and a good reminder to not get so caught up in the numbers.

Where do I find my google page rank for my site, I have google analytics but it doesn’t tell me, where is a good source for page ranks for the search engines?
Any help or suggestions are appreciated.

Samantha,

You can find PageRank here at this tool:

http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/future-pagerank/

That shows you what the PageRank of a page and a number of data centers around the world.

You can further download the Google Toolbar here that also has a PageRank indicator built into it…

http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/toolbar/FT3/intl/en/index.html

Best,

Jim

For me, content is the King, SEO is the Queen. So, PR is just the indicator which I don’t think I can depended on.