I have a site that has in a reasonably short period time achieved a PR6 (2 updates), it is a travel related site and I have reached page 1 on Google where I see most of my 'competitor' sites also have a PR6 - some that have been running for a good number of years and are considered experts within their fields. So the question is: Is it possible for an 'independant' site to acheive a PR of 8 or above with a none computer, internet, SEO site? Obviously sites like national newspapers and media sites can achieve such ranks but can a 'one man band'? Should PR not be relative? Should sites not be ranked against other sites in their own niche? Discuss
I personally don't care about PR. I care about search results. I've seen lower PR sites above mine in the search results. PR is only a factor in the search, but the search results are all that should matter.
I accept what your saying about not being bothered with PR however as stated the sites in particular are all on page 1 for the most competitive keyword for our niche yet we are all PR6. The question was purely about PR and the fact that I have not often seen many sites that are non computer, SEO, Script related achieve a PR8 or +. The way the algo works re links etc, its skewed towards SEO eperts, internet guru's etc. Lets say for instance that the world renowned leader on the Patagonian Frog Mouth Toad could have a website that is the difinitive guide to the toad yet his PR would probably not be great because a) his niche is not that popular and b) he has no clue about linking stratagy and therefore his site would have a low PR. And the hover text on the PR button does state that 'PageRank is Google's measure of the importance of this page' but is that the importance of the page in relation to all other pages or to pages within its own niche?
I agree with fsmedia, although still understand where your coming from Hopper. I guess if you run a website that can get you a great deal of backlinks then I shouldn't think it's impossible.
you can do it - and it can be done... just not probably all that fast... just remember the scale for the PR boost is an exponential scale - so it takes an increasing number of links and pr links to increase your pr. i always feel that what google says in their help files is best... build good content and people will link to you...
Stop thinking about your PR, focus on your SERP. Anyway, of course it's possible - it will just require TONS of work..
Everyone really seems to have got hold of the wrong end of the stick with this thread. IT IS NOT about my PR, its about asking the question, is it possible for minority niche sites to generate quality PR? And if so, should PR not be judged against other sites in similar or identical niches as opposed to globally? Please, this is NOT another how do I get better PR thread. Sorry if it seems that way!
Ah I see, where everyone is going wrong. They're focusing on the wrong aspects of this thread. I think it's very difficult for an invidiual to achieve PR 7 or PR8 links, unless your site receives a lot of PR from top directories, or .edu backlinks or the yahoo directory.
For Gods sake people -- Hopper knows how this stuff works, read the question. Hopper - I think there is a thresh-hold over which PR is no longer automatically allocated - is at least partially manual. My guess would be at 8+, although it may be lower, considering the number of directories at PR6, struggling to get higher / dropping back to that level. The business underlying the site would then be part of that evaluation and that is what I suspect would stop a one-man-band from getting a high PR. What makes me suspicious of the allocation of PR at higher levels is when you look at the PR of non-American / non-Internet company sites, they are often lower than you might expect. For example www.hsbc.co.uk / .com is a PR7, HSBC is one of the worlds largest banks. (although I notice that www.bbc.co.uk is at last a PR9 having previously been lower). If you compare your PR6 to HSBC's PR7 things start to get interesting There's obviously a massive chasm to fill between PR6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 ...of course that's all just speculation
My site got a low PR but still rank well in some keywords. I also think that it's possible for a one-man-manage site can geta high PR just you need to do lots of works or havea good quality and quantity of content on your site. so people will link back to you. ^^
Definitely a niche site can get good quality links. But you need to give something interesting or innovative that get users interested. Otherwise bigger sites with deeper pockets have an advantage. They can buy links, build tools...
But what happens if you have a very high quality site with a very specific niche? It is almost impossible to attract high numbers of backlinks because there simply isn't that many sites associated within the topic. A site could quite easily have the worlds leading articles about the and be totally unique, yet be classed by Google as not very good because as pointed out earlier Google states on ever browser with the rollover text that 'PageRank is Google's measure of the importance of this page'. Now are they then saying that the importance of the page is globally in relation to all other sites or within its own niche? If so, does the alogo make allowances for the possible size of the niche? I hope that this explains my point better.
It's very possible if you create good content for people to link to. I have a pr4 on the frontpage and pr6 articles on the same website so it's the incoming links that matters.
I think that because google has often stated that pagerank is solely dependent on incoming links, and also because its all computed by an automated algo that probably cannot identify human interest groups, i.e. niches, exactly, Page rank can only be an computed sum of link value, at this time. The google algo certainly uses a multitude of other criteria to rank pages in ther serps, well done on getting PR6, however, nothwithstanding the very public nature of TBPR, googles aim must be to match users with the best possible page, Plus, they know all about SEO, ergo, where very high PR is prevalent, it might actually have a deprecated effect
Do not just focus on PR only, why focus on PR if you can generate high traffic, even in search engines?
PR is important and you should focus on it despite many people saying otherwise. It is a major factor for serp placement. For travel sites it does not matter what the absolute PR is, only the relative PR to other sites in the niche. So if PR6 is the best there is then that may as well be a PR10 as far as travel searches go.
"Stop bothering yourself about PR, just concentrate on getting better ranking and higher traffic." You must get pretty annoyed by all these people replying with comments like this one over and over even after you clarified your question 3 times. These anti PR people are like drones that obviously don't even read the thread and just chime in to tell you they think PR is useless. This isn't even my thread and I am highly annoyed!