Page Rank, is it a good thing?

I was investigating something for a friend, looking at a competitors website, trying to find out why it was outranking hers. Hers was on page 2 of Google while the competitor site was on page 1. I started to examine the back links of the competitors website and what a surprise.

First of all most of the back links were nofollow, so I assumed they contributed nothing to the competitors page rank. I notice most large sites, like facebook, now mark all outgoing links as nofollow.

So where did the remaining follow links comes from? Well, to our shock, they came from disgruntled ex members of the competitors site writing posts trying to discredit them. In their rush to vent their misfortune they were actually promoting their page rank.

So my question is is this a rare anomaly of page rank? Or does it happen quite often?

What are your thoughts?

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You’ve been listening to misleading SEO nonsense haven’t you?

And you’re confusing Page Rank with SERP position,

Page Rank is a non-concern, Content is primary.

[quote=“TechnoBear,post:2,topic:44072”]
PageRank is based, as it always has been, on the number and quality of incoming links.

Google removed PR information from Webmaster Tools five years ago, because they decided it was no longer important and not something they wanted site owners to be concerned about.

https://productforums.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!category-topic/webmasters/webmaster-tools/29GtmYDt8L0

See also http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/beyond-pagerank-graduating-to.html[/QUOTE]

Its quite possible I am using the wrong term. Internet marketing is not my area of expertise.

However, I think the question stands on its own merit apart from that other post you are referring to. That is does bad press promote websites as much as good reviews?

I will check out your links and see what they have to say about the subject.

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Ok, I had a look at those links and they are more or less saying that it is conversion rate, bounce rate, and click thru rate are what is important. I also understand the Google filter bubble means not everyone gets the same search results so that a site on page 2 in USA may be on page 1 of Australia and there are probably other influencing factors as well.

Others claim that if you log out of Google and clear all browser cookies that you are likely to get more “standard” results (whatever that means).

Nevertheless, I don’t think Google will be able to stop people from comparing their siites with their competitors. So whether its CTR or page rank or page hits or whatever, it does seem that negative press can promote a website, with Google, over a more virtuous competitor.

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There was a case a few years back of a company that deliberately encouraged bad reviews for SEO purposes. It happens.

Not the best way to promote a business though!

PageRank today is much more than the little green bar; it is what determines a website in the SERPs. Content is a big factor. And there are now “bad links” too, which can actually result in a negative movement in the SERPs. I think …

No, it isn’t. Please read Mittineague’s post #2 above.

Google has been saying for at least the last five years that PageRank is no longer a metric with which webmasters need concern themselves.

Page Rank More important for any websites. If your website having Quality backlinks and using unique content to your webpage and its finding for how many visitors finding your websites.

I might be wrong I guess. Please back up your statements by posting a link to an official Google resource to convince me.

Can we post links in this forum ??? I didn’t know it. Ok i will post official google link from next time

Please go ahead and post one now, if you have one to back up your statement above that PageRank plays an important role in SERPs.

I’ve posted a link from Google in 2009 explaining that they no longer consider it important. If you have a more recent link contradicting that, then it would be most helpful for everybody to see it.

Off Topic:

Discussions on SEO seem to be full of misinformation because people post opinions and present them as facts, which other folk then take on trust and repeat. We are trying to improve the quality of SEO discussion here, and everyone can help by backing up their information with an authoritative source.

I found this video of Matt Cutts talking about pagerank dated 2010 of June.

//youtu.be/SJtchsFiQUo

Hope experts here can clear this up for us.

That’s a good video - short, but informative. Thanks for sharing it. :slight_smile:

I don’t see any contradiction here with the link I posted above.

PageRank may still be one of the more important metrics for Google to use, as Matt Cutts says, but he also says that there are other things which webmasters should be focussing on. Much as Susan Moskwa says here.

The problem with PageRank is that people were - and still are - obsessed with it, and concentrated on increasing PageRank whilst ignoring more important issues like content and user-experience. PageRank is based on the number and quality of incoming links, so SEO somehow became all about link-building - because for some reason, many people seemed to think number was more important than quality, which is simply not true.

By concentrating on producing high-quality content, you are building a site which other quality sites will choose to link to, and these links are far more valuable in Google’s eyes than the thousands of low-quality/Spam links on directories, blogs, forums etc. which are promised by so-called SEO companies.

So yes, Google still uses PageRank, but only as one of over 200 metrics used to rank a site, and it wants webmasters to concentrate on the quality of the site as a whole, and not just a single, unimportant, aspect. Do you care how many incoming links SitePoint has? Or are you only interested in how good the content of the site is?

You mentioned that Google no longer considers PageRank as important and according to the video, although there are 200 other signals, PageRank is still one of the more important signals that they use. That’s where I got confused.

Thanks for clearing it up though.

I have read almost 20 questions considering same issue… Always remember page rank has nothing to do with SERP. Page rank is finally going to be closed in next few years and you will never hear about page rank in internet marketing… All you need is just quality of content on your site… I ranked over 1000 keywords of my site with 0 page rank…

All that matters is your content and your customers.

I have a membership website and it gets lots of traffic. The only promotion I do is I participate in a few forums whereby my signature is the key.

Become an expert in your desired niche and the traffic will come.

Google will ALWAYS be doing something that directly affects their algo. People will ALWAYS be getting ticked with them for doing that.

I don’t buy links. I just focus on the customers and the watering hole that I am plugged into.

As far as SERP placement is concerned. I am (in the draft) so to speak behind the vendor that I base my business (Top 10).

PageRank does not put money in the bank or food on the table.

My opinion for what it’s worth.

Buddy

Yes don’t worry about page rank, traffic is the most important (a good one). writing good content to your website will help to reach you there, doing some promotion still necessary though, use related forum with your niche and do some bookmarking sites.

As i see in earlier discussion about Page Rank significance or not !!!
I agree with previous terms by Google about Page Rank, but now a days when you see Matt Cutt Blogs or Videos there u find some significance of Google PR likewise When he discuss about Google Panda or Penguin he always emphasis on PR like “When u have quality content or backlinks you get better search results or PR in terms of Google”.
If Page rank has not prioritized then why the Google Still provided a Page Rank for a Website and increases as website workflow ?

Did you try following any of the Google links posted above? For example, if you read further down the thread quoted in post #2, you’ll find:

https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/webmasters/29GtmYDt8L0/BtUxB8kC1lwJ

PageRank is a metric Google uses in ranking a site. Just because you know it exists doesn’t mean it’s the thing you should be concentrating on.

Blood count is a metric doctors use to check your health. How many people do you know who obsess about their blood count but pay little or no attention to their general health? Yes, it’s nice to know your blood count is good, but not much consolation if you’ve also got 'flu and two broken legs. :slight_smile:

THAT is a very good comparison! I wish I had thought of that.

Buddy

page rank is important. any little blip from someone who posts a link good or bad is still being noticed and it makes your page rank to go up a little. PR is important, you get a better SERP that way.