Google's 2007-Q3/Q4 PageRank (PR) Update

I guess the thread will have to be renamed to Q4 PR Update soon...

 

it never really did, but it seems that PR itself is dead

 

Yes, it did and still does. It may be only "one of more than a hundred factors" but it's still a factor.

 

Is it an algo shift, Google's symptoms of information overload, or is it because they are trying to throw off the importance of PR? Anyone?

 

None of the above, really.

Public PR exports were never really a priority for Google - the part that matters is the part we never get to see.

Now that they are bigger and richer and long ago became aware of the shenanigans people get up to chasing PR, abusing PR values, and organizing link schemes based on PR, they're even less interested as time goes on.

 

What annoys me is that the industry relying on PR values have made advertisers believe that it is the bellwether metric of a site's traffic (like say, the same way they think Alexa correctly measures a site's popularity).

I think we're ultimately better off if Google never publicly discloses PR again, and maybe then the industry will finally be forced to rely on more accurate (and relevant) metrics to determine a site's marketability.

Yes? No? Maybe?

 

I'd say "Yes", although my guess is some other equally misleading statistic would rise to the top - it might even benefit Alexa, which would be a joke.

 

So, PLEASE pray tell, what do you suggest?
Its easy to say this or that is no good but you should really suggest an alternative.

Visitor stats are by default NO reflection of the authority of a site. Traffic can be bought, also, visitor stats are more likely to be a reflection of any sites marketing ability than its authority.

 

I think he was talking about ad pricing and/or site pricing, not authority. And I think traffic is a good measure of that, certainly a lot better than public PR or Alexa.

Again, YOU brought up authority - what's that got to do with advertising pricing? And PR can also be bought - at least for a while - not to mention manipulated in other ways ("fake" PR).

 

It appears that there was a PR udate in progress and for some reason Google stopped it.

 

pagerank updated already everyone missed it lol

 

My major "legit" blog almost entirely stopped getting Google search traffic on Thursday and it still has 3K pages indexed. It does have Text Link Ads. My major "blackhat" site just keeps rocking along. I guess it's going to be a pirate's life for me.

Added some amplification:

No toolbar page ranks have changed, but I'm now getting minimal Google search traffic to my "legit" blog - it used to be about 70%. The major monetization is from Text Link Ads since PPC pays very little in that niche. If Text Link Ads are getting "slapped" then that site is in trouble, although I do it for other reasons. I'd also say that Text Link Ads as a company are in trouble unless they can figure a way to beat the Google filter. Why not just add the sites to the blogroll?

As for the "blackhat" site - no Text Link Ads, no problem. Coincidence? Perhaps, but it seems more lucrative to fool Google than play it straight.

 

Probably true. But Google doesn't want any reliable and accurate metric of a links value to aid link sales market. Is probably why they are messing around with the update. Start, stop, delay, but don't tell if it's dead, or what.

If Matt says TBPR is no longer being exported, Yes, something will rush in to fill the vacuum. But if it's uncertain, maybe nothing will be developed for a while yet.

What would be a good replacement? How about some measure of a sites actual ranking power? Some kind of formula for search rank divided by # of queries on that kw search ???

 

Well this is the longest wait we are seeing ! I just read some where, that Matt said it will take some more weeks for the PR update !

 

A site can be ranked on the basis of quality.....

 

I agree, but we all love to see quality given a number. Wondering what happens if Google indeed drops visual PR like Trakker suggested. Would a mix for backlinks on top 5 search engines with Alexa, domain-age, edu/gov backlinks and yahoo and DMOZ dir be a good one?

Maybe Yahoo will step in with there old ranking (what was the name again?). It seems to be a good market thinking about a visual ranking that represents quality. At least you can start all over again with giving (yourself) the marking website a PR10

 

but how and who will define quality for each website on this vast net on variuos niche its imposible because then there will be cheating

 

I think you can tell the value of a site quite well by looking at it, and Yahoo! backlinks.

 

I don't think you can tell value of the website by Yahoo backlinks.You can't tell nothing from Yahoo backlinks.Better check this again

 

Well, of course you should not rely on the number of Yahoo! backlinks, that alone tells nothing. But check out some of the backlinks: from where they are, are they paid or not, that sort of things. You will get a good idea about what sort of traffic they generate, and can probably figure out something about their effect on SERPs, too. The quality and quantity of backlinks is a good metric. I only said Yahoo! backlinks because Yahoo! has a more thorough list than Google. Feel free to use your favorite SEO tool though.