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Of course Google PR matters! That’s why there are so many tutorials, tips and tricks about PageRank!
Do you think so too?
The events of the past couple of months surrounding DragonBlogger.com have radically changed my opinion of Nominal Google PageRank, more commonly known as toolbar PageRank or simple PR. In the first update since May 25th 2011, the homepage PageRank of DragonBlogger.com was reduced from PR4 to PR0. In the second update since then, it was again increased from PR0 to PR2 (in the past week!).
Now, let us see how that affected (or not) the blog’s traffic.
If anything, there was an increase in blog traffic during the time the PR went down from 0 to 4!
While there are several factors (apparently hundreds!) affecting the search ranking of pages, Google PageRank has always been considered to be an indicator of the quality of inbound links to a page/website/blog. Clearly, the concept was wrong, and PageRank is now more volatile than ever. For one, if you increase the number of outbound links suddenly, there is a sharp fall in PR. That is probably what happened with DragonBlogger.com.
Google itself, through Matt Cutts, has declared that webmasters and bloggers should focus more on creating quality content and relevant inbound and outbound links organically in order to rank well on Google Search, rather than dwelling on Google PageRank! There is no longer any hint of doubt that PR is a very minor factor in search rankings, and is not a very reliable indicator of a website or blog’s authority. Visitor Traffic is really the only statistic we all should focus on, and use it as a feedback for out efforts in optimizing the blog/website.
If needed, you could also rely on Google Webmaster Tools to get a good picture of the number of inbound links and their details apart from search exposure of your pages. Recently, +1 activity has been added to Google Webmaster Tools.
What do you have to say about the importance of Google PageRank and its impact on Search Ranking/Traffic?
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We are influencers and brand affiliates. This post contains affiliate links, most which go to Amazon and are Geo-Affiliate links to nearest Amazon store.
I’m a Generalist Researcher working on a Theory of Reality, Horticulturist, Blogger, Natural Systems Analyst and Amateur Architect