Saturday, October 18, 2008

Common Page Rank Update Issues

By Calvin Preston

Every time a Page rank updates, the same common issues arise, creating confusion regarding your web site's Page Rank. What the Page Rank and its fluctuations mean cause confusion to the site's owner. Some usual themes are the following:

1. It is not a penalty if, during an update, your Page Rank decreases slightly. In the Google toolbar, the PR rank is merely a grade that Google assigns you. Your PR could lower if you lose some powerful links, or if sites that you link to lose PR, yours will decrease as well. You can also lose PR if Google alters the way they determine PR. Keeping up with your content will keep your PR from lowering. There are many reasons for drop in PR, but it is by no means a penalty. You will only be penalized for doing something that doesn't abide with the Webmaster Guidelines. This will result in removal from the index, or a significant drop in rankings.

2. The displayed PR is not necessarily current. The PR is only displayed current after an update. Although you may have created a well rounded link profile, perhaps added an interface for user generated content, and still end up with PR4 after a few months. You do not know your actual PR, so do not worry.

3. Higher PR does not equal higher rankings. Do not focus on you PR, instead focus on your traffic, rankings and conversions. A lot of searches have PR0-3 outranking PR4-6, it is not solely the measure in the Google algorithm that determines your sites spot. You don't need to worry about your PR unless you are selling links on your site and need to show your PR as being high in order to sell. Keep this in perspective, but do not ignore it. PR is the general snapshot of your site in Google's eyes. Generally speaking, you will rank higher with a high PR, but that is just one puzzle piece.

4. PR juice flows. Do not obsess about your PR, but realize that high PR links flow PR to your site as well. It is not as valuable to worry about your own site's PR as it is to ensure that your incoming links are from high or mid PR sites. If you are looking to gain links, naturally mix in high PR pages. When looking at PR as a trust snapshot, then getting a link from a trusted site, while being relevant to your industry, will boost your PR and you ranking.

Usually, a drop or increase in PR that doesn't coincide with traffic or search results should not worry you. It is an awesome thing to see your PR rise, but traffic is what really matters.

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