wendy: 11 days - I know I've been drinking but I'm certain I never types that dejaone - personally I think that's crap. I think that relevant backlinks are much more useful than irrelevant BL's - if PR is based on BL's (as everyone seems to agree it is) then it follows that the PR (probably) takes relevancy into account. I can't prove this - perhaps we should do a test. If you've got 2 sites with PR, I'll create 2 sites (1 relevant and one irrelevant) - you (and only you) link to my sites - and we'll see what PR is passed. If we time it right, we could managed this before the next PR update (if it ever happens). I'm suggesting you link to mysite simply because google seems to visit at very irregular intervals (last month it transferred 100Mb, this month 15Mb and there's been more content changes this month than last - go figure).
Homer: The PR calculation as it has been disclosed is just a mathmatically equation. It doesn't take into consideration where the links are relevant or not.
Ok, Kanute, be kind with us then to let us know the result of your meditation of all these factors. We ´d be happy if your shared that with us. I am still looking for an answer if PR is raised with quality backlinks or not. Quality backlinks = backlinks that count with a high PR themselves The next question would be HoW MANY backlinks are needed to really achieve a difference in the general PR of the website, as well as for increasing significantly the traffic. It´s not that backlinks create themselves overnight and I don´t find buying backlinks is the ideal solution for any website. Thanx for your consideration.
Links from relevant pages not only have a greater wieght than non relvent pages with PR, but also give you more clickthroughs and hence, more visitors.... The most important aspect to seo.. visitors.
All of this is rank speculation. What "people in the know" do or do not discuss doesn't alter that fact, bobmutch.
There's no evidence that relevancy directly affects PR, though it may well do so indirectly by influencing who links to you. However, relevancy may affect Google ranking. And you're right in that it also may affect various behaviors of site visitors, a factor which is too often overlooked or dismissed in doscussion like this.
I know that PR comes down to a mathematical calculation...they say everything on gods green earth also comes down to mathematics. Would it not be reasonable to assume that through all the math is some mathematical intellegence that will factor in relevance? In my experience links from relvant sources tend to provide more merit at Google. Although this may not be a visible in PR it HAS to be factored in somewhere. If we go on the assumption that PR is at the heart of Google's ranking algo...then PR must factor in relevance (importance)...no
Sure but it doesn't have to be PR that does it, right? No. Because PR is ony one of the factors (according to Google only one of more than 100 factors) that determines the output of a search query. Relevance could be (and probably is) factored in somewhere but it doesn't have to be and probably isn't factored into the calculation of PR itself.
Hey Minstrel, the thing is we are all farting in the wind here. I agree with you that there are many other factors involved. My thinking is along these lines. If your walking down a street looking for directions and you see two people, one is a homeless person and 1 is a cop, who will you ask for directions? So, if PR is at the heart of Google it must know the difference between a cop and a homeless person. So where is this PR update anyways?? Google changing the posts again. Bobmuch took the time to explain about internal and external PR. I really wasn't aware of this until a few weeks ago. It seems that PR is also a comodity, online. Maybe Google realizes this and says...we're just gonna keep it internal cuz we don't want people whooring our precious PR now
One variable is that the PageRank formula isn't owned by Google so they are limited in how they can change it. What they do with it is up to them, however. But beyond that, PR isn't difficult to manipulate -- and that's where all the other factors come into play in the ultra-secret Google algorithm which actually gets applied when you do a search. So, yes... trying to figure out how Google determines ranking is in large part speculation but it is possible to rule out some things and elevate the probability of others... As for "internal and external PR", it's not that they are two different entities. Those are simply terms used to describe whatever "true" PR is (the value that is actually used in Google's algorithm) versus the PR Google is willing to display to people outside the Google bunkers. All any of us ever get to see is the latter. The former we get to speculate about.
The concrete footings are at the heart of your house but there are many more things that go into making your house and even more on top of that that go into making it a home. PageRank was the starting point for Google. Google has gone way beyond that basic concept now, although it still sits there at the base of the structure.
I haven read the previous posts fully about the page rank topic,but i have something to show you juss see http://www.mzeb.com is an empty site (by the owner of http://www.batkhela.com) but see it has a Page Rank of 4.Wont this bothers newbies like me how did it happened.
khushal, Google owns the copyright to your avatar. You might want to think about getting another one.
I am in no position to disagree with you Minstrel. I just kinda dabble in SEO for my own self fulfilling purposes. I agree with most of what you say accept PR used to be much easier a couple of years ago to maniplulate or influence. I am finding that those tolerences have changed. PR is getting increasingly difficult to earn and nearly impossible to buy. If you choose to buy it chances are pretty good you will be disappointed with the results.
There's sopme truth to that, Homer -- as Google's index increases, the relative value of higher PR values also increases so, yes, getting to PR7 or 8 is more difficult than it used to be. One of my sites had a PR5 for the home page for some time. In one of the updates last year, it declined to a PR4 -- not because I incurred a penalty or lost any backlinks but because the playing field changed. On the other hand, the basic premise for manipulating PR is the same as always: Get enough high PR backlinks or an even larger number of lower PR backlinks, and the PR of your page will definitely increase. Perhaps two years ago, that would have boosted it to a PR7. Now, you may be lucky to get to a PR5 or 6. But it will still increase. That's what I meant by manipulation and that's why Google needed to add in other factors to arrive at the ultimate SE ranking formula.
I don't know whether ot would bother newbies. However, if it has a PR4 and is a newly created site, the PR is because it has some fairly high PR backlinks. That's how PR works.