Google PageRank Shakeup
The SEO blogosphere is abuzz with talk about the latest shakeup in Google. This time, most talk is about how a lot of websites saw a major drop in their PageRank. Many speculate that Google has targeted sites that were selling text links in particular. A lot of people seem really really bent out of shape over this, but in the case of every example I’ve seen, these sites are still ranked just as well as they were before this change and traffic remains the same. This pagerank update might stink for companies that base their ad prices on the visible, toolbar pagerank of their homepage, but honestly, this is more of a cosmetic change to the PageRank toolbar, which has very little effect on the things that really matter…rankings, traffic, and sales. It appears to be Google’s way of letting the link sellers (and everyone else) know who’s boss. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s a whole lot of hype and no real cause to worry.
Maybe this will help people wake up to the fact that PageRank really doesn’t matter as much as people think it does. What matters is whether people can find your website for your keywords. If they can find you, who cares what the little green bar looks like? We need to focus on the stuff that matters–and that is getting more people to your website and getting more of them to buy whatever you’re selling.
Really strange update
I’m one of those TLA publishers that got nailed by this and I’m not really sure what to think. Part of me is bummed to see my pagerank drop from 6 to 4. But another part (the part that loves receiving a few hundred bucks every month from TLA sales) couldn’t care less. Unless of course, this PR drop affects the sale of TLAs. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how this plays out.
As you mentioned, my blog is stronger than it’s ever been in regards to traffic and referrals. So it’s pretty obvious that something else has been factored in.
“If they can find you, who cares what the little green bar looks like? We need to focus on the stuff that matters”
Well said, beef up what you said.
I couldn’t agree more with your way of saying that this is more of a “cosmetic change”
I am from germany, a lot webmasters there complain about the last update, too. Maybe Google is a more stricter to english sites?