Google Updates Toolbar PageRank
The blogosphere is buzzing. Did the second PageRank update of 2008 happen so quickly?
A little more than a month ago I posted after some speculation that there was an update. Previously unranked pages on my site had PageRank.
If you check out the post from last month, it’s noted that I knew a PageRank update had happened because pages on I’m Blogging That had rank: Memorable Posts (ranked at 2) and The Cast (ranked at 3).
Just this evening, as I was browsing the pages of I’m Blogging That, I again noticed an update to some pages.
Both pages previously mentioned as having rank no longer do. Presumably this is because I have moved these pages from being linked on all pages of the site to just linked from my about page.
My about page now has a rank of 2, page 2 of my posts has a rank of 2 (I don’t expect that to last long), and my post No More Binkie Baby has a rank of 1. I have yet to check out some other posts for rank but did so on this one because it receives a ton of search traffic.
Here is further proof of unexpected updates:
Raise It, Clean It, Blog It (my personal blog) went from 1 to 3 on the index and 1 to 2 on the about page.
WAHM Confessions, a website with my business partner Mindy, went from 0 to 3.
Your Solo Ad Provider, another business website went from 0 to 2 on all pages of the site.
These updates spark the question; can we still say that PageRank updates are quarterly? I believe that the answer is no.
Nearly every single month since October 2007 there have been reports of a PageRank update. Is Google keeping a watchful eye on the web to spot sponsored posts and links or are these updates limited to blogs and sites suspected of giving up sponsored posts?
Whatever the answer may be, one thing is for sure, Google is watching. Do you care if you’re playing by their rules?
February 27th, 2008 at 6:02 am
Great post.
I have noticed a LOT of traffic on my blogs from Mountain View, CA. All personal, not the bot. I’ve also noticed that although my front pages are still 0, one or two of my post pages are 1 or 2.
February 27th, 2008 at 7:37 am
If they did, that means my request for reconsideration got turned down, even though I no longer have any sponsored posts. I even removed the Text Link Ads plugin, and cancelled my account with them.
February 27th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Mrs. Mecomber » Interesting to have visitors from that location. Wonder what’s going on with that? Congrats on the PageRank to internal pages.
Sarah » I’m not sure that because there was an update your request for reconsideration was denied. My PageRank was restored when there was not a normal PageRank update going on.
February 27th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Did you get any sort of notification from them, or was it more of a surprise?
February 27th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Sarah » It was a complete surprise. Just loaded my blog up one day and it was there, never any word from Google about it.
February 27th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Oh, okay. Thanks.
Maybe I’ll see an improvement. The blog being on a sub is new, and I did just now remove every mention of PPP/PayPerPost/pay per post, LOL.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
I haven’t seen any difference on my blog whatsoever. Every tool just returns 0.
February 27th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
While you’re going at it on your blog with PayPerPost, I go at it frequently with Google. This Page Rank baloney has to stop. I liked what you wroye about the IZEA page rank the other day. i agree it is lacking. By the same token I am shocked and amazed that in this great country of free enterprise, no one is challenging Google’s “rules.” Instead, it is the standard of whether a blog is valuable or not. This goes against the whole idea of the internet as I see it: eclectic ideas.
I do not and will not ever play by any rule with my blog. I respect people who do. I have goals for 2008 that don’t involve pagerank. Hopefully I am not alone!
February 27th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Damien » First, let’s be clear that I don’t “frequently go at it” with PayPerPost. Quite the opposite until the last two posts that I have written and you’ve seen.
Why do you think that Google’s rules should be challenged? They came in, they had an edge, they promoted their business, they built their brand, and now they have respect of both webmasters and advertisers across the web. They deserve that respect because they have built their company for it. It’s a case by case whether you choose to use them or not.
Would you walk into a hamburger joint and tell them they need to put the cheese on your burger for free? No, their policy is to charge and you don’t argue it because you want the cheese! Perhaps you could argue the price of the cheese (I have), but you still are willing to pay for the cheese non the less. This same principal applies for Google.
The key here is that Google’s PageRank is an industry standard. They saw a need, they filled it and a system has yet to challenge the standard. Why? Because how do you compete with Google’s brand and leading edge?
It’s an admirable quality to truly believe that you’re going to get to the place of good monetization and traffic for your website without PageRank. I’d LOVE for you to do it and then tell us how you did it! On the flip side, while I am not with you, I certainly believe you’re not alone in your quest to no longer care about PageRank.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Thanks for that response. I agree with you that Google has the right to use any criteria it chooses for their pagerank. However, I know my blog is very relevant on a variety of topics for searching. I am told that the pagerank on the toolbar doesn’t necessarily mean the blog won’t come up in a search.
I think writing a sponsored post is an okay and sort of cool thing. I am not over the top into it. But, I think sponsored posts are a competitor with Adsense so google lost credibility with me. All of a sudden, their pagerank muscle became a broad brush eliminating the rank of any content whether ppp or not. I used to see Google as a sort of “University” company that was unbiased.
As for my goals in 2008. They are traffic and quality of writing oriented. If that makes me a bunch a money (I average 80/month currently) then I will be happy to share with your readers how i did it. I’m lucky to have a day job so I can play on my blog. This stuff with Google has me fired up to so something. Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. Once again, you have a great post here.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
I know this will sound really dumb, but how do you check for PR?I know I could easily check ‘Google’ for PR and see what comes up. But in my personal experience, you are left with a vast amount of results. On something like this, I am happy to look ‘silly’ and ask for any advice that you may have… :)
Frankly I am not overly bothered, but I have seen so much activity across various Blogs about PR, people getting so darn worked up over it, I figured I can’t keep my head buried in the sand for much longer. Although I like it there!
Are there ‘tools’ available online to simply check the PR? I do have Google Analytics and other things configured, but I tend to leave it alone. As my site is not really, at the moment, target driven. One day yes, but not right now. Still trying to find that ‘voice’ and establish a routine before I go ‘hell for leather’. In the meantime, I am jsut getting to grips with all the in’s and out’s.
Any advice on quick and dirty way’s to check your PR, with explanations that Jack O’Neill can understand would be good. :0)
Gee
February 28th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Little off topic here.
I also have a question RE your site design service?
My ‘adopted 6yr old’ has Type 1 Diabetes’, actually I seem to have taken on 3 young kids!!
So we are going to create a Diabetes Site/Blog aimed at Children, in kids language so to speak. Now I was thinking about doing it myself, but frankly I do just love your style and think it would adapt real nice to a ‘friendly feel diabetes blog’.
Not saying your designs are ‘childish’ by the way!! :) Just that they ooze colour, warmth, sincerity and friendliess, and these are all qualities this site needs to have in order for children to want to visit.
Just a thought I wanted to run past you, if you are interested in this, could we communicate out of comments, so I could fill you in with some more details, and you can give me ideas on pricing and everything else? Many thanks.
Graham
February 28th, 2008 at 6:26 am
Damien » You should search some popular topics on your blog to see where you come up in the search results. Unless your site has been deindexed, I’m sure you’re coming up in the results.
And I agree with you that sponsored posts are cool. The concept is absolutely something that I’m behind. However, since leaving PPP and other companies I have found that I make more money, on my own terms, doing them the way that I want. And with this update, see that I’m not getting hit.
A lot of people are fired up about Google right now. I think this year we’ll start to see a lot of changes within Google.
Graham » You can check your PR by going to any number of websites. I like Live PR because it will check the rank on all internal pages. Normally though, I don’t use services like that unless I’m interested in the internal pages. Instead, I’ve gotta go with FireFox and the Google toolbar which displays the rank of every site I visit. And, to save you just two minutes, your blog index has a 2.
I’ll e-mail you privately in regards to the design! :o)
February 28th, 2008 at 6:45 am
Thanks Katy. I appreciate your take on these things, that’s why I read your feed every day. Take care.
February 28th, 2008 at 11:09 am
I’m starting to wonder about the Google toolbar. I checked you this morning, and you were at 7. Now you’re at 3 o.O
February 28th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Damien » You’re quite welcome.
Sarah » The toolbar could have been stuck displaying the rank of another site you were visiting. That’s happened to me from time to time. But, that doesn’t mean that I won’t take that PageRank 7! :P
February 28th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
I used to have a PR 5 for my blog but after being slapped with penalties in the recent updates, its now down to zero. After, I rarely check my blog’s PR and I don’t seem to care about it anymore. Why? Coz my blog’s monthly traffic is still the same or getting better even. Plus, my SERP rankings are still in place. :D
February 28th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Jaypee » Did you ever consider requesting reconsideration from Google?
And a lot of people who had PageRank removed or taken to 0 report the same as you are. Same amount of traffic and placement in the SERPs… clearly both being more important than PageRank.
February 28th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Yes I did send a reconsideration request and even made a post on how to file a reinclusion request. I sent it last November and still waiting for their reply or for any improvement on my blog’s PR. I heard that it could take a while and I’m still hoping that Google would accept my request and bring my old PR back.
February 29th, 2008 at 6:26 am
2 days back google updated the toolbar that is on 26th and 27th of feb 2008.I lost my pageran and it down to 0
February 29th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Sriki » The 26th is when I noticed and blogged the changes here. I’m sorry that you lost your rank.
February 29th, 2008 at 6:39 am
Jaypee » I’d suggest that you submit your request for consideration again. My post about submitting for reconsideration is PageRank Is Back.
February 29th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Oooh oooh oooh. I have a pagerank of 4.
Thanks, Katy, for writing about the update. I hadn’t been looking for one since Google recently updated PR.
I’m happy now because I’ve worked really hard to create a popular blog and PR4 is cool after less than 5 months! I know that PR is logarithmic and if it’s based on base 10 then I wonder what it would take to get a PR of 5. In other words, I wonder if I’m a low 4 or a high 4?
March 2nd, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Please don’t say it is already done! I had high hopes for the blog I started 2 months ago to at least get a PR1. It is still at 0, so if the update already happened I didn’t make my goal.
I hope it is not done!
March 2nd, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I have a question. How do you earn PageRank?
March 3rd, 2008 at 4:41 am
Google seems to have dropped my pagerank a little.
However, my blogposts on blogger.com are listed almost instantaneously. Sometimes, if I post a totally unique word, I’ll be the only result on google for a day or two.
Any thoughts?
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Sol » Congratulations on the PR4! Nice accomplishment. As far as seeing where you’re at within that 4 range, I have no idea. I wish I knew though.
You have me wondering though if my thoughts about sponsored posts having lasting effects on PageRank is true or not. Your blog, 4 months old has a higher rank than I. Have you ever taken any sponsored posts?
Beeker » Google keeps most of that a secret. But, good META information for your blog’s index and post pages and backlinks are key.
Brackets » I’m sorry, I haven’t heard of any further updates.
Ben » There’s a difference between being listed in Google’s search engine result pages (SERPs) than having PageRank. So, are you saying that your BlogSpot blog has gained rank faster or you are instantaneously listed for your BlogSpot blog in the SERPs?
March 4th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Hi Katy,
What I meant was that some of my blogspot pages got listed on the same day that I posted them.
The blog in question is listed in the website field. For a laugh, I’ve been responding to some Russian 419 baiters, and then posting the results on the blog.
Other victims appear to search for the scammers’ email addresses on google, and my posts have been appearing on google on the same day that I make them. For example, I’m the only result for a search of [email address removed by Katy].
What’s interesting is that some of my readers tell me that they get exactly the same emails as me!!!
Ben.
March 5th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Ben » Some of my posts show the same day as well. I believe that’s determined by your site’s crawl rate. For example, I’m Blogging That is crawled about every 34 to 36 hours. This means that a lot of my posts are in the search engine quickly. Not always ranked well but they are there. It’s not uncommon for me to have search terms displaying in my stats pointing to a most made the same day.
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:18 am
@ Katy
After reading some blogs from experts I can tell you that the crawl speed depends on which PageRank your website has.
If your website has a PR of 5 or higher, your crawl speed will be higher then when you have a PR of 3 or 4.
And if you get some links from high ranked which have a high pr, your website will be crawled within 24hrs.
March 23rd, 2008 at 6:53 am
Rik » I don’t believe that PageRank is the only factor in determining the crawl speed for a website. While my blog is only a 3, I have a watchful eye on my crawl speed at once every 24 hour period. A speed that is normally seen by those playing in the big leagues with their PageRank. There are many sites setup to track the crawl speed of a website and they’re quite useful. But really, nothing is more interesting than watching it happen with your Google Webmaster Tools account.
March 27th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Yeah, I noticed some differences on my sites too, but just thought it was me. Glad to know others are experiencing it too.
March 28th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Jason » Seems to me there’s an update of some sort every single month. The constant changes are getting hard to keep up with. Hope you saw an increase in your rank. :o)
July 11th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
My blog was new so may I ask how long do we get PR 1 for a newsite?
December 20th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Great post, the next update will be soon.
April 12th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
nice blog.keep up the good work.i intend to try out some of your techniques