PageRank has always been a great topic of discussion ever since Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page have coined the word. Since then PageRank has gone through many speculations, miscalculations, guesses, wrong assumptions and claims from self proclaimed SEO experts that they have already cracked the algorithm. This post is an effort to jot down all the big PageRank myths which have cropped up within the time of inception of the word.
Before starting with the Myths it is time to go into the basics so that we can be prepared to swallow the harsh truths of the most controversial SEO topic.
No authority document on PageRank can ever be completed without the holy words of the Google inventors themselves on what they claim to be the decisive factor in search engine rankings.
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important”.
Well those few lines of words looks to be clear but it leaves a sea of questions to be answered which led to people individually interpret various ways of looking at the issue.
Myth 1: PageRank is the primary decisive factor in Google SERP.
This is an ancient myth which unfortunately still exists in the minds of newbie SEOs and bloggers. PageRank is just one of the 200+(my belief is it could be much more than 200) ranking factors which Google uses to decide your site/blogs position in SERP. The value of PR has gradually decreased with time and is showing less correlation points when compared to other factors like trust, diversity of links and relevance.
Myth 2: More PageRank means more search engine Traffic
Its very sad to know that so many bloggers wait for the PageRank update hoping that their number increases and in turn their search engine traffic increases. This is complete nonsense. There is no evidence as such which says this and from my own experience a dip in PageRank in fact increased my Search Engine Rankings.
Myth 3: Toolbar PageRank is my blog PageRank
This is one of the most famous myths relating to PR. The actual PR calculated by Google is quite different from the toolbar PageRank. Google updates PR quite frequently along with its algorithmic changes but most of the time it never bothers to let you know. And you thought PageRank update happens every 3-4 months. The truth is that PR update is constantly happening and you are being told just 3-4 times a year. So the Toolbar PR is your blog PR when the earlier PR update happened.
Myth 4: PageRank value is a whole number from 0-10
What you see and believe is not the truth. Actual PageRank is a logarithmic value and is no way a whole number even if your toolbar says it so. PageRank is calculated using few very complex algorithms and it closing on a whole number is almost impossible.
Myth 5: My Blog PageRank is zero
This is a less known myth. The fact is no web Page in Google’s index can ever have a PageRank zero as referring to the actual Google PR(not the toolbar one). The PageRank Evaporated due to end points and nofollows redistribute around the web so every indexed page gets a small fraction of the PR juice.
The same issue can be thought out logically as “if assumed that your PR is 0 than it would mean that Google doesn’t consider your site to have zero importance which again should prevent such a web page to be added into Google’s index”.
Myth 6: Toolbar PageRank shows N/A. My blog has been banned by Google
Before taking conclusions it is better that you so a site URL search in Google. If Google gives zero results your belief is true else you are still in the race. N/A means that Google hasn’t yet given a PageRank to our blog(doesn’t mean 0 PR) and you need to be more patient or may be build more links.
Myth 7: My Blog PR fell from 4 to PR 0! Google has banned my Site
Nope you are wrong once again. The only way to know whether Google has removed you from their index is to do site URL search in Google and it cannot be known by any other way like PageRank. The reason for the drop in PR could be that you built links on low quality pages which was indexed by Google earlier and later removed after algorithmic changes which led to loss of backlinks and PR. The other possible reason could be that you lost a bunch of backlink
Myth 8: PageRank is useless
Actually not and I do suggest you to build quality PR for your site home and entry level pages. This is because PageRank is directly proportional to the extent to which your site is crawled and also marginally related to the rankings for highly competitive queries. (All though the correlation points were less).
Myth 9: PageRank Sculpting is dead
If only you have read carefully the holy blog post on PageRank Sculpting by Matt Cutts then you shouldn’t normally be the victim of this myth.
In Matt Cutts own words -
nofollow should be used when you don’t want to vouch for a webpage (spammy and low quality Links).
Now if you are using nofollow to your own site doesn’t it mean that you are indicating to Google that the particular page on your site is spammy or low quality. Instead reframing your site architecture can be a good way t do pagerank sculpting which would surely pass on the PageRank juice to your internal pages too.
Hence PageRank Sculpting is not dead instead the transfer of PageRank juice from the top level pages to deeper level pages is better achieved through rethinking you site architecture rather than using the nofollow attribute.
Myth 10: PageRank depends on content quality
This is a famous myth. PageRank in no way depends on your site content. No matter whatever crap you have. BUT!!! if you have low quality content then People might not link to it which again causes low PageRank. That is the only way content can ever affect PR.
Myth 11: Toolbar PR 0 backlinks do not pass PageRank
Pages with zero PageRank have still been observed to pass juice if not by large amounts. This is because of the inherent PR which every indexed page holds and also the invisible PR which hides behind the Toolbar PageRank. (Healthy discussion on this at SEOmoz)
I am very eager to hear from my blog readers in the comments about their views on this controversial SEO topic.
Category : On-Page SEO