Google pagerank - Useful or Useless?

I ve just finished my article on whether or not Google pagerank is useful or useless. A topic which seems to always being debated is whether or not pagerank has any uses.

Whats your opinion?

 

You make some really good points there.. PR has definitely lost it's value in last couple of years. And I agree that it does seem like it has become inaccurate. One of my PR3 blog has PR4 blog posts with almost 0 backlinks, these were not even the popular posts so I am all the more surprised.

I still see PR when I am sorting my directory list or when I am trying to buy/sell a blogpost or a banner. But it's just an old habit. Many people are able to fake PR and don't even mention the dropped domains.

All said, I still believe PR is one of the factors deciding SERPs. Though it has lost the 'weight' it used to carry earlier.

 

Yeah definitely is it just me or has Google seemed to become a little unorganised...perhaps its due to rapid growth? As they are growing rapidly and with increasing internet users...who will be able to stop them.

 

One of the things often overlooked in PageRank discussions is precisely what PR is. Google says, "PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages." (http://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html)

Google doesn't calculate and publish (toolbar) PR primarily for our sakes. They do it to state their "view of the importance of web pages." Frankly, I don't think they care what we think about PR. And why should they? It's their algorithm for their purposes, to help make their search engine do what they want it to do.

 

Hmm very good point Jim. I ve never really thought about it like that, i think thats some thing that is strongly over looked. With all the hype over Google pagerank and especially the toolbar update people tend to forget this, or not even know it.

 

There are many factors involving the calculation of a Page Rank.

Some factors:
#1. Backlinks
#2. Content

and many others..

 

We know that...you've obviously not read my article or understood the topic.

Its not what is pagerank how do you gain pagerank what factors determine pagerank e.t.c

Its whether or not pagerank i useful?

Hows about displaying your opinion on whether you feel Google pagerank is useful or not

 

Page Rank is how the SEO community judges each other and how the SEO community tell their clients that they have improved their site.

A non-technical person can visually see the improvement.

And the SEO community has made a great deal of money making that little green bar bigger.

As you can tell, I'm not a great fan of PR. But, is there a better way to judge a site's quality?

 

Now page rank is useful if you are into link sale business...I have seen many sites with low pr ranking higher then those with high pr..So as far as Serps are concerned,pr is useless

 

Advertisers value your site for PR in case of quality backlinks ....

 

I would agree that pagerank is useful for people buying and selling links however perhaps it is not taken as a major factor in the "SEO community" i ve seen and heard of many people that they hate pagerank and find it useless as its not accurate.

 

I think PR is fancier then being useful. High PR only gives a good impression to other and may have some meaning for Google but for a webmaster it isn't that useful.

 

How often does google update the pagerank? Does anyone know??

 

Its approximately every 3 months, the last one was about the 26th July 2008