PR - Thought for the day from Google

[fisicx]

A recent post on Matt Cutts blog:

...we slowed down external PageRank updates because if you do them more often than every 3-4 months, SEOs pay too much attention to the PageRank bar, and not enough to the over 100 other factors that go into our scoring.

I keep harping on about the unimportance of PageRank - it's a bit of fairy dust that is best ignored. Turn off your google toolbar and PageRank ceases to be of any importance, you can still buy suff, read articles and look at pictures - the PR of the site makes no difference wahtsoever - it's the relevance of the page that is important not the size of it's little green bar

[Ian J]

According to my Google toolbar my main site's home page used to have a PR of 5 and was in third place in the Google listings.

A few months ago the PR went down to 4 but the site rose to second place in the listings.

In the words of the immortal bard - go figure

[squalid]

Page Rank still sets me aside from the person who has just started a business in their bedroom.

Page Rank instantly tells customers that you didnt just start the website the night before - you are established and maybe sales talk could even push it as far as you are 'trusted by google'

I use my page rank as a sales tool with my list of comparisons - ie checklist against other sites - have they got page rank - if not - how long have they been around ?

i also would investigate alot further before placing an order on a site with no page rank.

[www.infoebookstore.co.uk]

Originally Posted by squalid

Page Rank still sets me aside from the person who has just started a business in their bedroom.

i also would investigate alot further before placing an order on a site with no page rank.

1. Does your PR mean you give better service? - NO

2. Do the general buying public know what PR is? - NO

Most people have no idea what PR is or what it means, when I first downloaded the Google toolbar the PR bar wasn't even visible, I had to add it.

James

[squalid]

1. good service is something that is given after a sale, PR helps me get the sale

2. the general buying public looking for a website dont know much at all, thats why is good to point out these things to help them distinguish between an established company and a bedroom part time venture

[JustOneUK]

I'm with Squalid on this one. I would rather have pagerank than not.

Is it a factor? YES. Therefore it cannot be ignored regardless of whether there are 100 other factors too.

James.

[www.infoebookstore.co.uk]

Originally Posted by squalid

1. good service is something that is given after a sale, PR helps me get the sale

2. the general buying public looking for a website dont know much at all, thats why is good to point out these things to help them distinguish between an established company and a bedroom part time venture

What is wrong with bedroom part time ventures? Admittedly I run my part time venture from my living room, but I still offer good products and great prices and top it all off with great service - which I have plenty of customer feedback to confirm. I know plenty of "established" companies which are rubbish - NTL for one!

If I play my cards right and get some decent inlinks and improve content (re-design underway) I too could have a good PR. So a part-time venture with a good PR - what does that mean?

If you tell your potential customers that PR has anything to do with Google suggesting you are a good company you are conning them in my opinion, because it is not true. I admit, I know next to nothing about SEO, but I know that!

James

[Scottie]

I have a brand-new website which does not yet have any page rank. I don't know if this lack of page rank would put off potential customers but I'm almost certain it will mean other websites may be reluctant to exchange links with me. I guess that a decent page rank gives the impression that the site is not some fly-by-night enterprise -- even if this is not always the case.

[squalid]

What is wrong with bedroom part time ventures? Admittedly I run my part time venture from my living room,

i didnt say there was anything wrong with bedroom part time ventures, only that we liked to distinguish between 'them and us'

The reason we do this is because there is alot of competition (in the web design/hosting business) from kids/people who have read a book/brought a reseller account and try to compete on a equal footing. They are not equal, they do not have longevity, probably do not pay any taxes, give no guarantees, and if not a success will ditch any current customers they have without a second thought. (big generalisation here, hope however you get the guist)

If you tell your potential customers that PR has anything to do with Google suggesting you are a good company you are conning them in my opinion, because it is not true. I admit, I know next to nothing about SEO, but I know that!

i didnt say that either

[fred67]

Originally Posted by Scottie

I have a brand-new website which does not yet have any page rank. I don't know if this lack of page rank would put off potential customers but I'm almost certain it will mean other websites may be reluctant to exchange links with me. I guess that a decent page rank gives the impression that the site is not some fly-by-night enterprise -- even if this is not always the case.

I have a site that is over 18 months old. It has no Google rank as far as I can make out, yet still it is no ONE in every search engine I choose to search on, using a combination of just seven keywords.

Admitted, it's for my 'plastering' business which is a one man band. But I'm always way above other more 'established' high profile company web sites.

I have no linking strategy with any other sites except another site I have which sells nothing, (plus my URL in some forum signatures), and I can't get it ranked in Google, but it IS ranked usually 5 or 6 on Yahoo.

Can anyone explain this?

I don't want to give the site URL because it would be against forum etiquette,
and I have had my keywords 'poached' before now.

Cheers, Pete.