I think this update will cause PR value to be unpredictable and hard to estimate site value. I say this because I have 2 types of site. The first type is generic site which I almost do nothing with their backlink and content update. The second type is the quality one which I always build up both relevant quality links consistency and quality content updated on regular basis for a 5 months. The first type got PR4 in this update from PR0 in Jan update. The second one is still PR2 same as the last update while their backlinks according to google webmasters increased around 600%. What does this tell us? It told us that PR is not the indicator anymore. If my generic site which only 5 months old got PR4 while the quality still PR2, then the PR is completely not according to backlinks like we all understand before and we wouldn't know the real value of site PR. This update is a real PR killer.
Totally agreed with what you've said here...First of all, I'm feeling strange, why Big G have a PR update in the previous Feb. month, but not a quarterly update anymore.But now, I think I'm got the clue...
my understanding of PR is that it does in fact play a big role in how your site is ranked, not necessarily how many backlinks you have, but maybe the quality of backlinks you have among other things such as you old your site is. I dont think webmasters now days have to worry to much about getting a high PR rather then quality backlinks and content.
You have missed my point a little. My quality sites has been built up with quality relevant backlinks and quality content consistency and got only PR2 (Backlinks increased 600% according to Google webmasters) while my other generic site do almost nothing and got PR4 without a clue how they can get it. (Only 50% of non-quality backlinks increased). PR is now unpredictable and couldn't be an indicator anymore. In the past, we all understand that PR will always according to numbers of backlinks but this update is completely irrelevant to that.
Sxperm, I totally agree with you. I have a great website that has gained over 20.000 quality natural backlinks since the last update but the PR is still 2. Traffic is rising every day, so I don't think it can be a penalty. Page Rank as we knew it is changing or this page rank update is a partial one. Just my 2 cents.
I personally have never understood the 'Quarterly' update theory - Google exports the ToolBar PR randomly and has never had a specific pattern that could be rendered 'quarterly'. PR can be unpredictable at times, there's always one chink in the chaink, huh?
Have you ever heard of the purported "over-optimization penalty". According to some experts, Google may downgrade the PR of sites that appear to have a lot of SEO done on them. If such a thing really exists, maybe it has been applied to your quality site because the backlinks profile looks un-natural. Just suggesting a possibility.
ya.I had experienced the sameting as u,my site had about 1900 links and at 2007 last update it get pr 0 , but when Big G update at 2008 Jan, the PR is 4, the ranking are well,and traffic ups also..
Google has something in mind that they changes they algorithm in PR updates. Google has a lot of surprises nowadays. They will not follow the regular PR update basis of 3 to 4 months since they delayed the previous updates that takes 6 months....
ya, i also agree to you. Now I am a bit confused on PR and how big daddy google actually determines the PR of sites....
Well one of my sites which has multiple high quality backlinks to it was a PR0 to start of with and was increased to PR3 in the february update. But guess what I am not happy about it at all. I thought it should at least get a PR5 .. Well that does not matter much after you hear more of this story. Today about 15 minutes ago I was here in DP for the past 5 hours and was thinking hey what the heck let me try and check my site value using smartpagerank and it said that the site which is now a PR3 is actually ranked PR0 .. I tried going to the site wand what they said is true. The PR is gone. I have checked also with iwebtool and now it also shows a PR0 compared to my checks like 2 days ago.. Can a PR increase and decrease within the same PR update .. What the heck is Google thinking.. I have lost all hope in Google. I think PR is not a matter at all to me now. I still receive a lot of unique readers oer day to my blogs and I think that is what matters most. Google is only trying to play us like toys. Well I am no longer a toy and will not support the idea of Google's PR anymore.
i have a few sites, one of them is a "stats" tracking site which keeps history (backlinks / pr / etc / etc), have done a little testing (a couple of sites) and it seems the sites where i have ONLY built backlinks to the front page, aren 't doing well as as the sites where i have put in a deep linking strategy, basically linking to pages across the site as a whole (and not only the front page), the deep linking was a little like throwing a grenade so to speak - some pages have several links, others none - and well it's got a lot less links then the other ones, but has a much stronger pr in this "update", if you look at links to a site, natural links are all over the place, to the articles and rarely to the front page itself, but webmasters only seem to be build links to their front pages - google was going to track this sooner or later, and it looks like they just might of done it this time... will have to wait and see what other people can see about it.
Totally agreed, while my homepage is pr2, many of my inner pages are PR2 and 3!! That's strange to see inner page got higher PR than homepage. As I say, this update is a real PR killer.
You also have the point here as well, my friend. Big G maybe will change the update format style into once per month, if this happened, who will benefit it the most...? Watching the Big G updating just like a drama...
๊I think update process not finish yet. I guess 10-15/3/08 will be complete and official announce at matt cut blog