So, how important is our Page Rank?
What exactly is Google Page Rank?
For those who don’t know, with the Google Tool Bar you can see a ’Page Rank’ between 1 and 10 for your [or any other you're visiting] website or blog .
According to Google’s definition of Page Rank, “it 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 considerably more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; for example, 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.” Using these and other factors, Google provides its views on pages’ relative importance.”
How much do we really know about our Page Rank?
VP of Search Quality Udi Manber says, “…surprisingly little is known about ranking at Google. This is entirely our fault, and it is by design. We are, to be honest, quite secretive about what we do. There are two reasons for it: competition and abuse…”
Sure there are widely held beliefs, but clearly *no one* can tell you exactly how to compete for rank in Google. What’s more, Google’s engineers aren’t going to allow for link abuse or the gaming of their algorithm. Not when links can be paid for, gathered solely for the purpose of gaming or just plain irrelevant. We can certainly assume they will continue to advance the algorithm, which means that any optimization effort aims at a moving target. Says Google, “We’re constantly experimenting with our algorithm, tuning and tweaking on a weekly basis to come up with more relevant and useful results for our users.”
And, by the way, if that Page Rank number is so important, why do I rank higher for so many topics and key phrases than other sites with a higher Page Rank number?
Are there other means used to rank our sites, blogs, pages [and posts]?
How much does that number between 1 and 10 truly count toward our positioning in the Search Engine Results Pages? According to a New York Times piece titled ‘Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine’, “Mr. Singhal [current master of Google’s ranking algorithm] has developed a far more elaborate system for ranking pages, which involves more than 200 types of information, or what Google calls “signals.” Page Rank is but one signal. Some signals are on Web pages — like words, links, images and so on. Some are drawn from the history of how pages have changed over time. Some signals are data patterns uncovered in the trillions of searches that Google has handled over the years.”
So it counts, but how each signal is weighted versus 200+ others in the algorithm leaves one to wonder whether or not focusing on one is a smart idea. Could there ever even be a sustainable search engine optimization strategy? Is it likely someone somewhere could ever game a small army of PHDs determined to deliver the most relevant [links to] answers possible?
In all, it appears the Page Rank signal may be less and less an important indicator of our status.
If very little is known, what can we do to compete?
Consider the search engine business. In order to be successful, search engines require a critical mass of loyal searching so that they can generate [pay per] clicks. According to the New York Times, “It [Google] believes that its ability to decrease the number of times it leaves searchers disappointed is crucial to fending off ever fiercer attacks from the likes of Yahoo and Microsoft and preserving the tidy advertising gold mine that search represents.” Logically, the idea is to attract more, and to keep those who have already been, searching. Says Udi Manber, “The goal is always the same: improve the user experience. This is not the main goal, it is the only goal.”
So rather than obsessing about links and ’Page Rank’, a comitment to the consistent Business Blogging of our useful and subject focused knowledge may be the best long term strategy. With more and more good timely content, we’ll attract more and more visitors, page views, links and [RSS] subscriptions. And with more human interest [or the data those 'signals' reveal to Google resulting from that interest] we’ll become more relevant for our pages, our posts and the content we blog
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