25 replies to this topic

[DonnaFontenot]

I know, I know, who cares, no one pays attention to TBPR anymore, blah blah blah.

Regardless, there's been a toolbar PR update today, and yeah baby, my little ol' HTML5 template site got a boost to a PR5 today.

Laugh at me all you want. I'm happy.

[AbleReach]

Hey, I'm happy when you're happy, from osmosis alone.

[DonnaFontenot]

I clicked the Like This button, even though it didn't work.

[Black_Knight]

I still reference TbPR in relation to index/crawl depth of sites. Even mentioned it in a section of my (finally) updated Multi-Page SEO Technique article. (The update was something Yuri suggested - as in the updated article, not the toolbar PR update ).

[jonbey]

Mine has not fallen, which is a good thing. All steady Eddie here.

[Dr.Marie]

...rushes to check pagerank even though it doesn't really matter....

WOOT! All of my sites have increased in pagerank.

[Michael_Martinez]

Oddly enough, because there have been so many Toolbar PR updates this year, I have been checking on Xenite.Org. My newest sub-domain (started in July) shot up to a PR 5 within a couple of months then backed down to a PR 4 with this update. Meanwhile, Xenite, which has languished through the years and gradually declined from a PR 6 to a PR 4 is now back to a 5.

To be honest, I'm not going to lose much sleep over it but it's a curious situation. I guess the 301-redirects I implemented for some older articles on the main domain to the new sub-domain were responsible for the rapid growth. I didn't get THAT many links (but I guess they could have been some humdingers).

[jonbey]

Maybe all those posts to Google+ boosted it?

[Michael_Martinez]

Or maybe just promoting it from my other domains boosted it. I don't know. There are several hundred inbound links so I guess at least a few of them count for something. Hard to say.

[jonbey]

And maybe nothing to do with links gained an lost. After the April / May PR update my TBPR dropped by 1 but then recovered on the next - I had not done any link building of note during this time. Well, I had gained a few links, maybe that was it, but not many.

[glyn]

Since installing Firefox Version 5, Google Toolbar is not support.

YAY!

[DonnaFontenot]

That's good in the long run, I agree. Of course, I don't use the toolbar anyway.

[Michael_Martinez]

And maybe nothing to do with links gained an lost. After the April / May PR update my TBPR dropped by 1 but then recovered on the next - I had not done any link building of note during this time. Well, I had gained a few links, maybe that was it, but not many.

Well, internal PageRank rises and falls all the time. It's based on linkage but I don't worry about it. Just thought it was curious that Google would publish so many TBPR updates in such a short time.

[iamlost]

Just thought it was curious that Google would publish so many TBPR updates in such a short time.

Typical distraction behaviour.
Webdevs love to talk about TBPR. Especially if it goes up. Given the number of disparaging Google conversations this past while I was wondering how/when Google would work at changing tone and/or topic...

[Dr.Marie]

I've always wondered why Google updates the PageRank toolbar at all. How does it benefit Google to tell us this metric that doesn't matter? It may matter if you are trying to obtain links...but Google doesn't want us to gain links for the sake of gaining links, they want us to gain links for creating content worthy of attracting links.

I wonder if there is a more sneaky motive for Google. Here's a thought - perhaps it helps them determine which pages are populated solely for creating link juice. For example, let's say I bought a bunch of expired domains with good PR. I write a few articles peppered with anchor texted links and then ignore the site. The odd user may land on it, but that's it. It wouldn't surprise me if Google has an algorithm to determine which of these sites like this are *possibly* link farms. (For example here are some criteria that would mark a domain as suspicious):

-high PR
-recently changed ownership
-presence of anchor texted links

So now Google has a list of many many domains that are possibly suspicious. Then, on the days following the PR toolbar change, I madly go and check all of my expired domains to see what PR they are. These domains rarely get a direct visit so when they suddenly get a direct visit the day after a PR update this could add another flag.

I dunno. Maybe I'm overthinking things. But really, I can't think of why on earth Google would continue to update the thing.

[DonnaFontenot]

Yeah, I think you're overthinking it. Originally, I believe, it was just marketing hype. Google had come up with this brand new, ingenious way to rank pages, and showing that "big thing" was a marketing tactic. For years, Google equaled PageRank in the eyes of the media, so it remained important to keep showing it. Now...no idea why they still do it. But I think it still harkens back to the Google = PageRank mindset. PR is like a brand logo in a way.

[jonbey]

Some users, i.e. non techy type that do not build or run websites, use it as a measure of site quality.

"many many more users turned on the PageRank display than there are site owners. The PageRank display is actually a popular feature" - Matt Cutts.

With so many algo changes in the last year it makes sense to update the TBPR a little more. If Google is making a real effort to rank pages better based on quality then it seems logical that it will want to update the PageRank number that is publicly displays for webpages as this is used by some people to determine site / page quality. Not saying that they are right to do so, but people do, according to Mr. Cutts, in 2008 at least.

Also, one question from me - when SEO's say that TBPR is meaningless and does not affect search traffic, do you mean that a change today does not affect traffic, or the entire system is mostly meaningless? Because as the TBPR is always a few months behind the "real" PageRank calculation, you could argue that it does indicate search volume, but the public update is always long after the changes take place. Does that make sense, or have I been eating too much cheese again?

An amusing reply from an even older discussion about PageRank:

Matt Cutts October 3, 2006 at 9:08 am

Oy, enough PageRank questions! My advice is not to obsess about PageRank too much; it is one of more than 100 different factors in how we score documents.

[Dr.Marie]

On a lighter note, every time I see the title of this thread I think of a client I had in whose dogs had problems in her "private areas". The owner was trying to explain to me what the problem was and she said, "She has problems with her Virginia and her Arizona".

[DonnaFontenot]

do you mean that a change today does not affect traffic, or the entire system is mostly meaningless?

Both, actually. There's not a lot of correlation between PageRank and traffic, really. I mean, sure a Pr8 or 9 probably gets a lot of traffic, but it's not really BECAUSE of the PR 8 or 9. Going from a 4 to a 5 isn't going to cause a change in traffic. With PR being only one of many ranking factors, it just doesn't have that much sway. It does influence indexing/crawl depth, as Ammon mentioned above, though. So, even if toolbar PR wasn't out of date, which it is, it still wouldn't have as big an influence over traffic as it did in the golden olden days. So, when people say TBPR (the PR we see on the toolbar) is meaningless, they are probably referring to the fact that it's only a snapshot of what the PR was at some point in the past, and that what the real PR is right now could be higher or lower. When people say PR is meaningless period (real or toolbar), then they are likely referring to the fact that it is only one of many ranking factors and doesn't affect traffic as much as it used to.

"She has problems with her Virginia and her Arizona".

We are missing the little smiley that rolls on the floor laughing, so...

ROTFLMAO!

[Michael_Martinez]

To be honest, I have never understood why a non-site owner would care about the Toolbar PageRank. What does "3 out of 10" mean to the average person when visiting a site? I suspect most of them don't understand what it refers to (importance with respect to the rest of the Web).