Does PageRank Really Matter Anymore? I say ‘Yes’
I keep hearing comments from people saying that Google PageRank doesn’t matter anymore. Why doesn’t PageRank matter anymore, you might be asking – well because Google says so, that’s why. But my response is just because Google says so publicly, doesn’t mean a hill of beans!
Check out this question and answer exchange between a forum user and Google:
Question and answer taken from Google Webmaster forum:
Q: My site’s PageRank has gone up / gone down / not changed in months
A: Don’t worry. In fact, don’t bother thinking about it. We only update the PageRank displayed in Google Toolbar a few times a year; this is our respectful hint for you to worry less about PageRank, which is just one of over 200 signals that can affect how your site is crawled, indexed and ranked. PageRank is an easy metric to focus on, but just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s useful for you as a site owner. If you’re looking for metrics, we’d encourage you to check out Analytics, think about conversion rates, ROI (return on investment), relevancy, or other metrics that actually correlate to meaningful gains for your website or business.
I definitely understand why people feel that PageRank is not important, however of the “over 200” signals Google uses to determine authority, PageRank is one that is equally made up of hundreds of variables that are all represent authority – and it happens to represent a variable that is visible to us all.
There is, without question, a direct correlation between a site’s authority and ranking and their PageRank. For example, HuffingtonPost.com is a PR8 and #1 in Technorati’s 100. Mashable is a PR7 and typically #3 in Technorati 100 and dominates top rankings in Google search results for a myriad of high traffic keywords.
I believe Google says “don’t worry about PageRank” as a position and strategy to fight spammy, artificial back linking. No sooner does Google say “Hey guys, PageRank means everything to a site” and instantly the spam cess pool grows.
I definitely understand why people feel that PageRank is not important, however of the “over 200” signals Google uses to determine authority, PageRank is one that is equally made up of hundreds of variables that are all represent authority – and it happens to represent a variable that is visible to us all.
There is, without question, a direct correlation between a site’s authority and ranking and their PageRank.
For example, HuffingtonPost.com is a PR8 and #1 in Technorati’s 100. Mashable is a PR7 and typically #3 in Technorati 100 and dominates top rankings in Google search results for a myriad of high traffic keywords.
I believe Google says “don’t worry about PageRank” as a position and strategy to fight spammy, artificial back linking. No sooner does Google say “Hey guys, PageRank means everything to a site” and instantly the spam cess pool grows.
What do you think?
Do you think that PageRank still matters in representing a website’s overall authority?