On Thursday, August 16, 2007 I posted my thoughts on page rank,Page And Traffic Rank-Tilting at Windmills! It has pretty much proven to be true. SEOmoz had an interesting post a few days ago that stressed the importance of page rank by posting pictures of Barry Bond and Arnold the Governator, and showing the effects of steroids. OK guys, the steroids helped performance in the short term and artificially, so it is very much the same! The after pic of Arnold is enough to show the outcome!
PR matters to people who are selling ads, because the advertisers have yet to figure out that good search position is better than good pr. The little green phallic symbol is, to many, like the fancy little sports car, a means of compensating...
Monday, November 5, 2007
Sunday, November 4, 2007
PR Drops:Does Page Rank Matter?
With the last round of Google pr drops, came the accompanying cries of foul by webmasters all over the web. This was to be expected. Along with this came a lot of statements like: "page rank doesn't matter any way," Well, there is truth in that statement.
Let's look at this logically.
Page rank means something to seo's who base reputation on it, and publishers who use it as a drawing card for advertisers. That is about it.
I have noticed for quite some time, that there were some inconsistencies between what the seo folks are saying, and what really is. We have a saying around here when someone continues to go on about something that is obviously not true. "He knows a lot of things that just aint so!"
I spent several hours doing searches for keywords related to my industry, to see just how much page rank effects placement. One example is pretty much representative of all, this is what I found:
The phrase I searched: Texas Outdoor Pest Control.
The top 10:
#1 had a pr of 1, and is a service company.
#2 had a pr of 0, the same company.
#3 had a pr of 2, a Texas A&M page.
#4 had a pr of 0, an EPA page.
#5 had a pr of 6, a University of Texas page.
#6 had a pr of 3, and is a service company from Washington state. Didn't I say "Texas?"
#7 had a pr of 3, and is from Pen State, isn't that in Pennsylvania?
#8 had a pr of 0, a service company.
#9 had a pr of 2, a service company.
#10 had a pr of 2, and was the same as number 9.
The number one spot was taken by a page with a pr of one.
2, 4, and 8, had a pr of 0.
3, 9, and 10 had a pr of 2.
6 had a pr of 3
5 had a pr of 6
None of the top 10 had a pr above six. Only 4 were from edu or gov, two of them were out of state, the pr 6 was a page on custodial care, with very little info related to the topic.
The results can be a bit confusing, but they are what they are, and they have been that way for some time.
When the search was repeated, leaving out the word Texas, only one of these was in the top 20, and, you guessed it, it was the number 1 slot in the above list with a pr of 1, at number 20. To be honest, this page changes position from between 10 and 23 on a regular basis, and the only noticeable change is the addition of some advertisements for one or two of the other pages on the list, which seems to bring some of their sub pages up in the search. When the ads are gone, the site useually comes in at 15 or 16.
conclusions:
In all my searches on regular everyday things, pr means nothing. If it influences search placement, it is only to keep a page there that would otherwise not be there. Pages with a lot of information do well without page rank, under a variety of related searches. Pages with high pr and limited information are limited to very specific search placement. The second of the two search results was filled with ecomerce pages, most of them selling gadgets that do not work. I am not sure what that means, it is just an observation. I did the same sort of search an a lot of products and services related to everyday life. You might get different results from an seo related search.
Let's look at this logically.
Page rank means something to seo's who base reputation on it, and publishers who use it as a drawing card for advertisers. That is about it.
I have noticed for quite some time, that there were some inconsistencies between what the seo folks are saying, and what really is. We have a saying around here when someone continues to go on about something that is obviously not true. "He knows a lot of things that just aint so!"
I spent several hours doing searches for keywords related to my industry, to see just how much page rank effects placement. One example is pretty much representative of all, this is what I found:
The phrase I searched: Texas Outdoor Pest Control.
The top 10:
#1 had a pr of 1, and is a service company.
#2 had a pr of 0, the same company.
#3 had a pr of 2, a Texas A&M page.
#4 had a pr of 0, an EPA page.
#5 had a pr of 6, a University of Texas page.
#6 had a pr of 3, and is a service company from Washington state. Didn't I say "Texas?"
#7 had a pr of 3, and is from Pen State, isn't that in Pennsylvania?
#8 had a pr of 0, a service company.
#9 had a pr of 2, a service company.
#10 had a pr of 2, and was the same as number 9.
The number one spot was taken by a page with a pr of one.
2, 4, and 8, had a pr of 0.
3, 9, and 10 had a pr of 2.
6 had a pr of 3
5 had a pr of 6
None of the top 10 had a pr above six. Only 4 were from edu or gov, two of them were out of state, the pr 6 was a page on custodial care, with very little info related to the topic.
The results can be a bit confusing, but they are what they are, and they have been that way for some time.
When the search was repeated, leaving out the word Texas, only one of these was in the top 20, and, you guessed it, it was the number 1 slot in the above list with a pr of 1, at number 20. To be honest, this page changes position from between 10 and 23 on a regular basis, and the only noticeable change is the addition of some advertisements for one or two of the other pages on the list, which seems to bring some of their sub pages up in the search. When the ads are gone, the site useually comes in at 15 or 16.
conclusions:
In all my searches on regular everyday things, pr means nothing. If it influences search placement, it is only to keep a page there that would otherwise not be there. Pages with a lot of information do well without page rank, under a variety of related searches. Pages with high pr and limited information are limited to very specific search placement. The second of the two search results was filled with ecomerce pages, most of them selling gadgets that do not work. I am not sure what that means, it is just an observation. I did the same sort of search an a lot of products and services related to everyday life. You might get different results from an seo related search.
Open Letter to Google
Dear Google;
Hey, this search engine thing looks like it may just stick! Sure am glad you guys were sharp enough to do this.
I see a lot of complaints about buying and selling links, and page rank issues. In general, my thinking is that if they don't like the weather, they should relocate! Links seem to be the focus of this whole issue, so I have a suggestion:
Stop grading by links at all!
The structure being used now was great when there were a lot fewer sites, and a lot less people prowling the web, but now it seems to be getting a little obsolete.
There are a lot of people who have figured out ways to manipulate those links, and thereby get better rank which seems to lead to better placement in some cases. I realize that the better placement is not always the outcome of better rank, and less so all the time. I see a lot of sites that have little to no page rank listed above sites with pretty high page rank, which begs the question:
What purpose does it serve?
A lot of the high ranking sites have almost no important information on them, and a lot have a lot of links because they have a lot of people drop in to see which starlet is in the gutter at the moment, but that hardly seems to be as important as some other issues.
What I would like to see, is a method that would produce search results based solely on the importance of content. It almost seems as if you are already heading in that direction. I know that would lower the rank of a lot of ecommerce sites, and the latest drunk starlet sites, but it would provide true quality results for the end user. Of course, there would be a lot of SEO's out of work, but they are sharp people and could come up with something I am sure.
I have no ideas on how to write such a program, but you guys seem to have half the PHD's on the planet working for you, and I am sure they can figure it out. Anyway, keep up the good work, you provide a great service, and I just wanted to offer a suggestion for making it better, and drop it in your suggestion box.
James
Post Script: If you need a good pest prevention expert, I am available!
Hey, this search engine thing looks like it may just stick! Sure am glad you guys were sharp enough to do this.
I see a lot of complaints about buying and selling links, and page rank issues. In general, my thinking is that if they don't like the weather, they should relocate! Links seem to be the focus of this whole issue, so I have a suggestion:
Stop grading by links at all!
The structure being used now was great when there were a lot fewer sites, and a lot less people prowling the web, but now it seems to be getting a little obsolete.
There are a lot of people who have figured out ways to manipulate those links, and thereby get better rank which seems to lead to better placement in some cases. I realize that the better placement is not always the outcome of better rank, and less so all the time. I see a lot of sites that have little to no page rank listed above sites with pretty high page rank, which begs the question:
What purpose does it serve?
A lot of the high ranking sites have almost no important information on them, and a lot have a lot of links because they have a lot of people drop in to see which starlet is in the gutter at the moment, but that hardly seems to be as important as some other issues.
What I would like to see, is a method that would produce search results based solely on the importance of content. It almost seems as if you are already heading in that direction. I know that would lower the rank of a lot of ecommerce sites, and the latest drunk starlet sites, but it would provide true quality results for the end user. Of course, there would be a lot of SEO's out of work, but they are sharp people and could come up with something I am sure.
I have no ideas on how to write such a program, but you guys seem to have half the PHD's on the planet working for you, and I am sure they can figure it out. Anyway, keep up the good work, you provide a great service, and I just wanted to offer a suggestion for making it better, and drop it in your suggestion box.
James
Post Script: If you need a good pest prevention expert, I am available!
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