Nearly all directories have been affected one way or another by Google's PR, and about a million threads posted on it. Here's a slightly different approach on the issue you might not have thought about. The Psychology of the Little Green Bar! Have a read and let me know if you think there is still place for PR in directories and if so do you think you'll be able to better manage PR it rather than PR manage you?
Amazing how Public Relations and PageRank got the same abbreviation....coincidence? I fear not! It was a great blog post, thanks for that, have to concur with the expressed sentiment that the PR monster will still haunt us for a long time, at least until the beast that is Google finally expires...
Directories should follow and keep in mind Google webmaster Guidelines. Don't use much more highlight on home page links. This seems your directory as a link seller, you may not place more than 20 links on a single page.
And its unlikely Google are going to run out of breath just yet. I'm amazed that within a few hours over 70 people read it but just you dared comment. Makes you wonder whether most people fall into number 4 on the list of emotions triggered.
I'm assuming the author was telling a story using the term 'the little green bar' as the main character. So yes, the little green bar is PR? I'm pretty sure everyone in the SEO and directory industry would know that. I wouldn't mind betting that even if PR wasn't mentioned in that blog people would still have known it was PR that was the subject being talked about.
wow, you know when the truth hurts, when people start rating a perfectly good thread as bad. ala the start I deliberately set as 5 to see if someone would come along and drop it. Wish PR was as predictable as some people on here.
i have pr burnout , I have pr8 site 5 pr7 and god knows how many pr6 5 etc.I made my life easy as of 15 mins ago by no longer selling any pr links nor looking at pr when i buy links.I think if we all change our line of thinking here we can support eachother more efficiently.
I've always though it was called the silly green bar. At least on the SEO forums I've been associated with. And that isn't a new term, it's been called that since very soon after it was released. Here's a thread from Sep 2004 where it is called that. 4th post
This is the only forum I get time to look around Dan, and even though we all might thing its a silly green bar, its a very powerful silly little green bar don't you agree?
it's powerful or useful only if you plan to sell links, else it's pretty useless. Yes PR [visual or actual] has importance on serps, but a little seo can rank a pretty much new website with no PR above the high PR site in google serps pretty easily!! Some day google will remove the visual PR, that would be the best thing for directories!
I couldn't agree more, and I along with quite a few have said PR for vanity SERPS for sanity, but isn't it funny how PR can make people act in the strangest of ways. When they had high PR they raved about it, now they haven't got it they dismiss it as nothing more than a gimmick.
Jamie, I don't often comment on the writing style of blogs, but this article is excellent! You have a literary gift. "Chinese whispers..." The importance of PR depends on the value we attach to it...and that makes it coin of the kingdom in the webmaster world.
I'm not surprised at all, and not for any nefarious reasons. A lot more people read than read+comment. Although you may have been expected more comments based on the nature of the topic...
I know I said I was surprised but in reality I probably wasn't, although I did get a lot of p.m's regarding it, I think a few people also wrote on the blog itself. The problem with a lot of people on this particular forum is they possibly think of it as being a weakness if they dared admit to just how much PR does actually affect their lives. Its not a weakness though quite the opposite and it will be the stronger people who reply.
In terms of how it is marketed, absolutely. But even as far back as 2004 SEO's were denouncing it as a complete and utter waste of time. I don't think it has ever been taken "seriously". It's really gathered steam over the past few years as a way to "on sell" linking benefit. However, because most high PR's are manipulated it's a misleading and deceptive way to do business. If site owners are trading links/advertising on the sole benefit of PR, then they have nothing to offer IMO. People concentrate on gaining a higher PR, without ever thinking about the reasoning behind it. It's far better to attempt to rank stronger, and build a solid traffic base, and use the various promotional methods that exist to generate value. If you play the game fairly, you'll find that your PR climbs, as a natural result. Even if it is slow and steady. Then at the end of the day you have a lot more to offer than just PR. The PR itself is just a "bonus"
I couldn't agree more, and although would never declare myself an seo I have watched PR since inception and with others denounced it as a non starter from the off. There is actually a viable model for PR, but not the one Google are using at present, in fact they are miles off. It will never succeed in the directory industry either, certainly not while the majority of directory owners maintain their stance that PR counts as the most important factor. Will people learn though, do they even want to learn, that's the biggest hurdle.