Why Page Rank Doesn’t Mean that Much Anymore

Being reviewers, one of the questions we are asked the most is: What is your page rank?

In fact, it’s a consistent question. It always makes me smile when I hear or see this question asked, because I remember the whirlwind craze that Page Rank caused a few years back, when having the best Page Rank was all the rage. Website owners of all types scrambled to get higher numbers, though none of them quite knew how. They hired people to find other businesses to link with them and to write articles that could be used as link bait. Some even went as far as full site redesigns and having copy written with a high density of the site’s most searchable terms in hopes that it would raise the site’s PR. In the latter case, all it did was create copy that made the average person’s eyes want to bleed.

A Crazy Mathematical Conundrum Applied to the Web

Today, Page Rank still seems to be important, especially to marketers and those involved in PR. However, it still is not clear how Page Rank is determined. Back in the day, we used to write articles for Page Rank obsessed companies about the Google Page Rank Algorithm. The Algorithm combined complex mathematics with a little bit of luck. Google would not explain exactly how this Algorithm tallied Page Rank. They also were said to frequently change the Algorithm, to prevent crafty, mathematically-inclined individuals from figuring the Algorithm out.

To this day, it is still not clear what kind of things Google uses to penalize websites in the Page Rank department. With each new update, blogs and businesses bounce between seemingly unrelated ranks, moving up and down and causing a lot of speculation as to why the changes have occurred. There is no rhyme nor reason to why a Page Rank has changed, and frankly, we’ve seen it cause panic amongst the masses who freak out at any small tweak to their Page Rank.

It’s Really a Cat and Mouse Game…

….And…lets not forget that some popular websites/blogs have had their Page Rank dropped by Google for a myriad of reasons, despite the popularity of the site/blog. These are the infamous ones who decry Page Rank by principle. If Google does not wish a site to reap the benefits of Page Rank, they can, essentially, pull rank and deem the site unworthy in Google’s mind. We’ve seen these kinds of plays made by Google before. We can argue semantics and ethics, but Google controls Page Rank, therefore Google, justly, has prime say over what they do to or with each site’s Page Rank. Their site, their rules, and therefore, there should not be as much stock put into Google Page Rank.

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