One of the metrics that many SEOs seem to obsess about is ‘Page rank’, often shortened to “PR” and it’s a number that has managed to gain an almost mythical status amongst the Internet marketing set. This has recently been updated and you can view updated stats for web pages using a toolbar add-on. http://www.pinnacle-marketing.com/blog/2013/12/12/google-updates-page-rank-should-you-be-bothered/

1. Google updates Page rank –
should you be bothered?

2. One of the metrics that many SEOs
seem to obsess about is ‘Page
rank’, often shortened to “PR” and
it’s a number that has managed to
gain an almost mythical status
amongst the Internet marketing
set. You can view the “PR” value of
your site and indeed any of the
pages on your site by installing a
toolbar in Chrome or Firefox which
tells you the rank of any page you
visit.

3. But what does this even mean?
Well the number ranges from zero
to ten with ten being the highest
you can possibly reach but it’s not
quite as clear cut as that. It’s
generally accepted (i.e. Google
doesn’t really tell us the whole
truth) that there are fractions of PR
so you could potentially have a PR
of 3.9, but there’s no way of
knowing.

4. How does a website get
PR?

5. There’s a big Wikipedia article on
this so I’ll let you go and read that
if you like, but in general the idea is
that whenever a website links to
another site, it ‘leaks’ a little bit of
page rank. In effect, it’s sending
‘link juice’ to the site it’s linking to.
The more juice you get from other
websites, the higher regard your
site will have in the eyes of Google.

6. This flow of juice around the web is
part of the whole Google algorithm
and it used to be regarded as a
very important part, although it
has been played down a lot lately
by many people, including Matt
Cutts, the head of the Google AntiSpam team. Indeed, the PR that is
shown to end users like us hasn’t
been updated for ten months and
so many were proclaiming it as a
dead metric, but now it’s back.

7. PR Update sends everyone in
a spin

8. It has to be remembered that there are essentially two different
versions of Page rank. The first is the one Google uses and it’s fairly safe
to assume that this changes constantly as Google trawls the web and
analyses pages. The second, however, is the front-facing database that
we see in the toolbar and it’s this that has been updated. What this
means is that it doesn’t matter at all what your PR is showing as now,
it’s been that for ages, it’s just that Google is only now telling you.
The only really newsworthy thing about this whole update is that it
happened at all.

9. What is PR useful for then?

10. Finding good blogs
If you’re performing any kind of SEO then you’ll likely find that the sort
of blogs that you want to go and post on will have a PR of some value.
If you find yourself looking at ten blogs and you’ve only got time to
write for two of them, then the PR value is a good thing to look at as it
gives you a good idea of which are the best two blogs to use. You want
to get the best bang for your buck so writing a good article for a good
website that’s highly regarded is the best way to spend your time.

11. Buying High PR Domains
However, there was also another use for PR in the selling of Domains.
You see, many companies and individuals make a good living out of
selling domains that have a high PR. They’re seen as very valuable to
SEO and people are willing to spend a lot of money on a domain that
has a high value in the hope they can squirt some of that value to their
own web sites.

12. What is PR Should we be
bothered?

13. Don’t sweat it
PR is only one of many different indicators of SEO value and in the
whole it’s not worth expending too much time worrying about it. If
your site has dropped in PR then it doesn’t mean it’s dropped in
ranking, it just means that you’re not passing on quite as much juice as
you used to.

14. Sources and Contacts
• Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank
• Pinnacle Technical PR - http://www.pinnaclemarketing.com/blog/2013/12/12/google-updates-page-rank-shouldyou-be-bothered/