Webmasters have long touted the use of PageRank. Essentially, this is something Google uses to rank the pages that it comes across. While it won’t give out how it does this, as this is proprietary information, there are some who have monitored it and tested various scenarios to check the changes in PageRank.
However, in recent years, many contend that Google has abandoned the PageRank system. This could be to keep owners of websites guessing (which Google likes to do). This means strategies based on PageRank are no longer going to work. Whether PageRank is still effective depends on who you talk to.
Google stated that it maintains it primarily because people use it to determine which websites are valid. However, many feel that while it still may be in place, it’s importance in determining how pages rank has diminished. Others feel that the entire PageRank system is no longer relevant.
A good reason why PageRank may not be relevant is it ranked pages primarily based on links from other websites. It didn’t care about the quality of those links. This set the stage for abuse by those wishing to game the system. Link farms became a popular technique to use to increase rank. That is until Google made some major revisions in its ranking system. It just goes to show you that ranking in Google will always be a moving target.
This frustrates many while others accept it as a cost of doing online business. Those who are accepting will make the necessary adjustments while the frustrated majority will fizzle out. One group of people who won’t have to worry about this are webmasters who don’t create content for ranking. They focus on the quality of their content and let that speak for itself. It’s difficult to imagine that Google would ever penalize this strategy.
After all, their modus operandi is to have its search return relevant results. Relevancy will always be achieved when the content is high in quality. The takeaway here is if you find strategies that promote the use of PageRank, think twice about adopting them into your marketing mix.
Unless the person touting those benefits can present a reason why PageRank is still valid, it’s probably best to move on to other techniques which are more current. These current methods may not be evergreen in the long run, and you may find yourself updating your techniques later. But, that is how the online business game is played.