Pagerank Strange

[Gt1]

I wanted to know why my homepage has less pr then my other pages in my website that is very strange do you think it going to change in a couple of days.

[angelos]

Hi,

That's absolutely normal, because as you can see yourself it's not called homepagerank, but pagerank, so your different pages may have different PRs.

Regards,

[Gt1]

Yeah i understand that but i don't understand why my homepage is going to have a lower PageRank because all of the inbound links are pointing to the homepage and the rest of the pages that have higher pr have no inbbound links to them.

[mad4]

What is the url? There are a number of things that can cause this.......

[angelos]

I can also guess it may depend on what anchor text those backlinks contain.

[mad4]

I can also guess it may depend on what anchor text those backlinks contain.

Page rank is nothing to do with anchor text.

The problem is most likely to be that google is seeing more than one page for the index page.

For example if all the backlinks point to domain.com but all the internal links point to domain.com/index.html then both of these pages get a different PR.

The solution is to stick to linking to one page and redirect the other variations to the page you have chosen.

[angelos]

[QUOTE=mad4]Page rank is nothing to do with anchor text.

QUOTE]


PageRank has nothing to do with text or content, but a page rank namely has something to do with this. PR combined with anchor text may actually be a reason why the homepage and other pages are ranked in SERPs differently.
However, it's just my personal opinion.
But if we are talking about Google's PR alone, I agree there wont be relation with anchor text. In the end what really matters is not what PR you've got, but how you are ranked by SE at all.

[maldives]

Page rank is nothing to do with anchor text.

The problem is most likely to be that google is seeing more than one page for the index page.

For example if all the backlinks point to domain.com but all the internal links point to domain.com/index.html then both of these pages get a different PR.

The solution is to stick to linking to one page and redirect the other variations to the page you have chosen.

Very nice explanation. I am also in a same situation so I must look at it again :o

[NetMidWest]

I have been following this problem. It is not uncommon of late. It seems that Google does have a problem correctly attributing the proper pagerank to the home page:
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=512977#post512977
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=608738#post608738
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=651419#post651419

[ServerUnion]

I had this happen a few updates ago on sites that I built the links on quickly. It was like there was a damper on the homepage.

[NetMidWest]

I had this happen a few updates ago on sites that I built the links on quickly. It was like there was a damper on the homepage.
That is a possibility, though I think they simply stopped the iterations that calculate PR short.

Do you remember which update, or perhaps a date you noticed the problem?

[Blotch]

The problem is most likely to be that google is seeing more than one page for the index page.

For example if all the backlinks point to domain.com but all the internal links point to domain.com/index.html then both of these pages get a different PR.

The solution is to stick to linking to one page and redirect the other variations to the page you have chosen.

I disagree with you. If "domain.com" resolves to "domain.com/index.html", any PageRank transferred to "domain.com" will ALSO be transferred to "domain.com/index.html". However, if all your pages were linking to "domain.com" and all external links were linking to "www.domain.com", then you may get PageRank differences because Google treats a domain with or without the www. as different domains.

[lionstarr]

I think you're speaking about the Google Sandbox - if you get to many links in too short time google doesn't like that. A dmoz - Submission is the thing you can do then. This will help
greetings,
lionstarr

[cybercool]

some good tips from the 'man' himself !!

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/

[ServerUnion]

I disagree with you. If "domain.com" resolves to "domain.com/index.html", any PageRank transferred to "domain.com" will ALSO be transferred to "domain.com/index.html". However, if all your pages were linking to "domain.com" and all external links were linking to "www.domain.com", then you may get PageRank differences because Google treats a domain with or without the www. as different domains.


As per what many have seen, and what matt's blog outlines, this is not the case. It is best to have one central location for the homepage of your site. Why leave anything to change, always link the the same hoempage, external or internal.

[mystikmedia]

What is the url? There are a number of things that can cause this.......

Like what other than the site having links to these internal pages? I have the same issue with Alive Directory. I was expecting PR8 or at least PR7 for the homepage. It turned out to be 4, but some of the internal pages have PR6, 5, etc.

[mystikmedia]

I had this happen a few updates ago on sites that I built the links on quickly. It was like there was a damper on the homepage.

How many updates did it take to straighten out?

[mad4]

Like what other than the site having links to these internal pages? I have the same issue with Alive Directory. I was expecting PR8 or at least PR7 for the homepage. It turned out to be 4, but some of the internal pages have PR6, 5, etc.

Looking at this page (http://www.alivedirectory.com/Entertainment/) I cannot see any links pointing to your homepage which means that the homepage is linking to loads of internal pages but they are not linking back.

This means PR passes to the homepage and flows to the internal pages and then is not flowing back to the homepage.

There is a link back to your homepage but it is not referenced with an absolute url and google is clearly having a problem with this.

Your link at the moment is:

<a href="/"><img src="/templates/images/alivedir6.gif" border="0" alt="Entertainment" /></a>


and needs to be changed to


<a href="http://www.alivedirectory.com"><img src="/templates/images/alivedir6.gif" border="0" alt="Entertainment" /></a>

[mystikmedia]

Interesting. Do others here agree that this would cause the result being seen? Who here knows what needs to be adjusted in PHP LD to get the result mentioned? I have the full URL in the site field, of course.

[NetMidWest]

Oh yes, absolute linking all the way - it kills bugs dead. :D
I link absolutely and saw the problem anyway, however. Still, you should do so.
I think this problem is directly related to the attempts to fix bugs in Google's algos.
If mad4's suggestion is not good enough, however, read this about the 302 redirect bug in Google (http://clsc.net/research/google-302-page-hijack.htm), and I am sure you will be convinced to link absolutely.

[Tam]

I agree with the absolute linking suggestions, but other issues may be at large and determining these may depend on your adeptness at trawling through/'deciphering' your scripting and htaccess files.

I was a bit bewildered to see that the OP mentions the alive directory as his site and yet two other posters mention it in their signature, are you guys all working on the same site?

[mad4]

I think the key issue is that we know google has bugs with variations in urls and using the absolute url kills these bugs.

Even if it doesn't help it can't hurt can it?

to avoid this I use absolute urls and have the following in htaccess:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index\.php3\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^index\.php3$ http://www.domain.co.uk [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain.co.uk
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.domain.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]


mystik - I am 90% sure that its this issue thats causing your problems, I was posting the other day about google not being able to handle the trailing slash on Matt Cutts blog (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=60333) and similar issues can confuse google quite a lot.

[mystikmedia]

I was a bit bewildered to see that the OP mentions the alive directory as his site and yet two other posters mention it in their signature, are you guys all working on the same site?

It's my site. Others also include it in their signature.

[mystikmedia]

I think the key issue is that we know google has bugs with variations in urls and using the absolute url kills these bugs.

Even if it doesn't help it can't hurt can it?

to avoid this I use absolute urls and have the following in htaccess:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index\.php3\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^index\.php3$ http://www.domain.co.uk [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain.co.uk
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.domain.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]



Thanks much for this suggestion. I will give it a try.

[Tam]

It's my site. Others also include it in their signature.

Sorry, I seem to have mistaken it with the OP which, reading back, was incorrect. Beg your pardon :(

[NetMidWest]

I use this:
RewriteEngine on
Options +FollowSymLinks
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} .
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^!www\.domain\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
</IfModule>