PageRank Value Is Still Relevant
Not many weeks before, WebProNews wrote an item regarding Google taking out PageRank from Webmaster Tools. Susan Moskwa, a Webmaster Trends Analyst at the leading search engine said, “We’ve been telling people for a long time 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,” she pointed out. “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 for it.” At the moment, PageRank has been taken out of Google WebMaster Tools but can still be seen in the Google Toolbar.
I don’t know why Google thinks that we shouldn’t put too much weight on the statistics shown in PageRank when it’s unmistakable to all that nearly everyone of us rely on these statistics when examining the outcomes of our search engine optimization and marketing strategies and given that we know that a high PR results in further traffic for our online business then, Page Rank should be given some significance when we evaluate our efforts.
Titus Hoskins, a Search Engine Marketer and author of ‘Does Google Page Rank Count Anymore?’ wrote in his article that, “For years, Google has been downplaying the importance of Page Rank and states that it’s only one of about 200 ranking factors which determine how Google ranks its index for keywords”, emphasized the results of gaining high PR popularity on web companies, and I believe that many of what he mentioned were insightful, to say the least.
Titus Hoskins talked about the outcome of a superior page rank stating that, “Obtaining a high PR7 or PR8 simply means more business and revenues. Placed against a PR1 site, a PR8 will win more respect in the eyes of potential clients and can produce enormous profits for the site owner.”
So where does this prospective client respect come from? It is borne out of their respect of Google of course. Titus Hoskins discussed the respect and brand identification Google has by saying, “Google has established an unmatched credibility and brand recognition in the eyes of potential customers visiting your site. Web users trust Google for guidance and direction”, and as an online marketer, Hoskins is utterly surprised by how Google impacts the web community. Respecting this he said, “I am completely amazed each day at the marketing power Google now commands with web surfers and with the general population.” Hoskins added, “Google is the king of online search and no other search engine even comes close to Google.”
I infer that to mean that if Google, gives an online business a high PR, then expect Google’s influence to have a positive effect on how many purchase from that site. So how can we stop these online companies from assigning such a big premium to Google PageRank numbers?
“Regardless of what Google wants to happen,” wrote Hoskins, “PageRank is still extremely important to anyone marketing on the web, especially if you’re selling SEO services or operating a web business.” In closing, he summarizes people’s assessment of PageRank as a marketing tool that, “still wields tremendous influence and power” and by and large, this understanding has remained true up until recently. “By default, PageRank is Google’s opinion of your site,” Hoskins stressed. “Web users can count (at least to 10) and if Google believes people are still not counting when it comes to PageRank, then they are fully mistaken.”
Despite what Google says it is my opinion that there is still some benefits to be obtained from Google’s PageRank feature. I have the same opinion with the writers quoted above, and plan to continue to use Google’s PageRank in my evaluation of my own search engine optimization endeavors as well as other people’s.
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