According to various reports and speculations around the web and on the Twittersphere, it looks as if Google updated PageRank today.
As defined by Google, PageRank is a technology that determines the “importance” of a webpage by looking at what other pages link to it, as well as other data. Since PageRank is widely bartered, Google’s relevancy algorithms had to move away from relying on PageRank and place more emphasis on trusted links via and other search signals.
In late 2009, Google’s Susan Moskwa commented on the topic of removing it from Google’s Webmaster Tools dashboard:
We’ve been telling people for a long time that they shouldn’t focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it’s the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true. We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it.
What does this mean for you?
Probably nothing. Maybe the little green meter in your toolbar moved up or down a notch or two? Certainly don’t go jumping off a building if you look at your toolbar and your PageRank isn’t as good as yesterday.
I’m sure plenty of SEO’s will be fielding concerned/elated calls from their “knowledgable” clients telling them how shitty/awesome they are. Some good SEO’s might get their asses chewed and some bad SEO’s might bask in their own glory. I say take it with a grain of salt.
You have about as much control over PageRank as Stewie Griffen’s messed up laugh when he thinks something is really, really funny!
I’ve personally noticed that many of my site’s internal pages received some PageRank, but my homepage’s PR remained the same. Also, many of my newer pages still fall into the zero PR category.
My Recommendation
Listen to what Google said a while back. Don’t get hung up on PageRank. Stick to implementing solid On-Site SEO strategies that are steeped in making your client’s site(s) more relevant for their searches and better for users, and building links from high-quality sources and you should do just fine.
Stop back by tomorrow my next article regarding tips and ideas to get more followers on Twitter.
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Update (1-21-2011): Google announced yesterday that Larry Page – one of Google’s founders and original CEO – is returning to his post as CEO to replace current CEO Eric Schmidt as of April 4, 2011. With all of the lawsuit stuff going on, we should all keep an eye on the happenings and going ons at Google as they seem a little fishy.
