Let me be the first to welcome our new Google overlords and masters.
Let’s face it, Google is everywhere. Google is into everything. Soon enough they shall create Google America, Google Australia and Google England (etc.).
The (not so) secret Google plan to dominate the world is beginning to come to fruition. Is it time to just bow to the inevitable?
There are three aspects of the Google plan to dominate the world I would like to discuss. The Google PageRank Update, The Google +1 Button and the Google + (plus) social network.
Let’s start with the general love/hate relationship I have with the Big G.
Google, I love you (Google, I hate you)
Most people who work online have a “relationship” with Google. Unfortunately it tends to be an abusive one. We try to impress her. We write her soothing stories. We do everything we can to get her attention.
But Google, she is a harsh mistress.
Sometimes she ignores us. Sometimes she favors others over us for no apparent reason. If we ever step out of line she gives us a, “slap”. Google punishes us and refuses to tell us exactly what we have done wrong.
Let’s face it: Google is one mean Bi***.
“Hey, Babe, you know I love you” –Google
(All about the Google Pagerank Update)
I have been writing online for a year now. (Gosh, has it been that long!) Though I still do not have my own website I have written literally thousands of articles strewn about the Internet. I have put a ton of effort into getting my dear Google to notice these articles.
Sometimes she has complied. Other times she has ignored them.
One thing Google has been consistent on is ignoring them when it comes to PageRank.
Until now….
I keep list of a many of the things I write on Pagerankalert.com. It is a list of links. It creates its own page (that you can ping). Hey…they are cheap backlinks …but it is a backlink…right? With the November Google PageRank update, despite having a few hundred links listed there, I got 1 (one!!!) article ranked up.
One!
To a stunning PageRank 1. (woohoo!)
Now, of course, I have come to grips with the fact that PageRank is only one factor that Google looks at. Link relevancy, for instance, is likely far more import. It is pretty clear that Google must be decreasing the importance of PageRank, since she pretty much ignored it since April 2010. Even check the Alexa links.
(Let’s face it, until the June 29 update that was the last “big” one)
So, like many, I got used to being ignored by my darling Google. I cook for her. I clean the house. I write her long love letters and she just grunts and watches American Idol.
No “Thanks”.
No nod of appreciation from my mistress Google.
What is a guy to do?
Then on the 29th my email literally blew up with notifications from PageRankAlert.com. Of all the pages I track on that site I had 479 gain some sort of Pagerank.
479!!!!
SteveScottSite went from PR 2 to PR4. I had a handful of articles that got a PR 3. A ton of PR 2’s and a few gross of PR 1. I even had one Squidoo article go from PR0 to PR 4.
I was blown away.
Yup, it was Google bringing the flowers. “I love you, babe” Google said.
So now once again, Google cares. I am basking in the glow of a loving Google….
Until the next time I step out of line…
SLAP!!!
End part 1….
Next week I shall discuss the “Google +1” button and the new “Google +” Social network, and (of course) Google’s relentless plan to dominate the world.
(Anyone remember “Pinky and the Brain?”)
Now, let me know what YOU think about the Google Update!
I bet she treated you all well. How did it make you feel? What were your results. How do you feel about PageRank in general. What did you do to GET PageRank. Let me know what you think!
This article was written by my brother Gene. He has long worked behind the scenes on the SSS as well as doing his own thing online. Since I will be on vacation for the next month he will likely be doing about 1 article a week here for the near future.
Take Action. Get Results.
Hi Steve and Gene
And I was just going to commend you for your humorous take on Google Steve. So it’s Gene with the great sense of humour 🙂
I only realised about the PR update cos I was talking on skype with a blogging buddy and they noticed their updated pagerank, went over and checked mine and realised it had happened.
As I don’t write the volumes Steve does, was happy with PR2. And I haven’t been doing anything different so Google must have been feeling very generous or just rewarding me for sticking around for a year!
Enjoyable read Gene. And only 2 days to go till Steve’s launch that so many of us have been waiting for before he takes off for a well earned vacation in Europe. Waiting, waiting.
Patricia Perth Australia
Thanks Patricia,
Glad you liked the article while waiting for my brothers epic.
(I read 5 Chapters yesterday. Of course, I am biased, but I really liked it)
PR has really faded in importance. I am pretty sure “Googles” version (not the toolbar) has been higher for a lot of people for a long time.
However….it is always nice to see you are making “progress”
🙂
Hey Steve,
Thanks for your suggestion. I just signed up for that tool. I’m currently tracking my progress there. However, I don’t plan to track all links. Just a few of the ones I am concerned about.
One of my niche sites got PR 1. My new blog which is about a month old is still PR0. I don’t expect it to gain PR within a short time. So no worries there
Adarsh,
Yeah, It would be a little “much” to put ALL my links there too. If you ping it and get the page found by Google it DOES count as a backlink so that is a nice benefit.
(although it is certainly about as weak of a back-link as you can imagine)
I also have a love and hate relationship with Google. I haven’t been tracking my PageRank lately, and I have almost stopped looking at the statistics. A while ago I was like obsessed with stats, and I was looking at analytics and Alexa and the PR almost every hour, and then once a day. Now, I just do what I do, and I just sort of know that things are going in the right direction.
The thing with me and google, is that I usually get a lot of traffic from the things I don’t plan. But when I do keyword research and I spend a lot of time writing an article or a blog post, almost nothing happens 🙂
The thing that works the best for me when it comes to Google, is when I’m me, and just doing whatever I’m doing, without focusing on the details.
Jens
haha, I’m like you Jens. The things that I don’t plan for are usually the ones that work out the best. And I also stopped checking my stats so religiously. Which is funny. Because I used to have the Alexa toolbar installed and my Alexa ranking kept shooting up and up. Then I got sick of it and got rid of the toolbar. Now my ranking is dropping. But I’m not getting any less traffic. Shows you just how inaccurate stats can be (especially Alexa which obviously favors its own toolbar). If Google had a toolbar like that I’d download it 🙂
You know, I sort of did the same.
I started out I was really upset because Google kept NOT updating pagerank. Then when one came…nothing seemed to update. Now it seems they have opened the floodgates.
(I suspect they were throttling results and we finally have an accurate representation of their numbers as of the day it was released.)
It also hit me about at the point where I had forgotten about PR entirely.
As for ranking for what you do not expect. that is pretty typical. You are going to rank for long-tail keywords (including many you don’t try for)
With time and effort you will get those exact phrases to rank. (as well as still having a slew of longtails)
I wouldn’t pay too much attention to pagerank. I haven’t touched my site since January and my PR jumped from 0 to 2 (according to various PR checkers available online).
Interestingly (and rather bothersome), I have been unable to find a way of checking pagerank that involves going to google.com. And I suspect that manual calculation would be impossible/impractical. I’d bet my left one that Google has made significant changes to Larry Page’s original algorithm, so you wouldn’t be able to check it yourself even if you wanted to.
The bottom line: if your site is giving you value in some way (here, value can be anything from dollars to satisfaction, fun, warm fuzzies, whatever) then you are doing it right and that should be all that matters.
Kind regards,
Steve
Steve,
Oh, I agree with you! the displayed PR is only a “representation” of what Google see’s and even PR itself is getting more questionable in it’s value. (I think Google is slowly moving away from it)
I also think thatthey have been throttling results until now. No way should a site like trafficgenerationcafe have remained PR 0 until now. Your site was likely PR 2 (ish) as far back as october, but they really haven’t released full data til now.
Of course that is a pure WAG (wild-ass guess). Who knows.
Ultimately I agree. PR is useful for “feel good” reasons and for those who sell advertising.
Hi Gene
I had some crazy flowers from Google too!! I am very happy until I get slapped again… I even got a PR 6..(only one) but mostly PR 4 on most of my websites, even a few I was going to leave for dead.
That makes me wonder..What the hell are they doing??? I understand my Pr 6 but not some of the PR 4’s.. I am sure they will be taken away again.
Mitz,
A PR6… now that is awesome!
It could be that they screwed up (favorably) for us. My suspicion is that they have just been holding back results for a long time. (perhaps until after things settled down from Panda/scrapper updates)
Ultimately anything anyone says is a guess, because one thing we know for sure is that Google treats facts like state secrets.
The first rule of working on the Google Algorythm:
Don’t talk about the Google Algorythm
(or Fight Club for that matter)
Even though I don’t think Page Rank is that important, I can tell you that after the update a lot of spam sites and article farm sites went down. I can only assume that your pages got a higher rank because of the quality they have.
I’m glad google improved his algorithms with this new update.
John,
I don’t think the algorithms have anything to do (directly) with how many spammy sites above you hold the mark.
The way the “original” algorithm was done eventually as more and more sites gained PR and passed more and more on there would have been all sorts of pr 8,9,10 sites.
Obviously this is something that the big G didn’t want, and hence part of the reason for big changes.
Ultimately no one knows, but one thing I am fairly certain of is that these pageranks didn’t “happen” in the past couple of months, it is just that we are only now being “shown” the results.
Since PR value is getting more and more questionable it is getting regulated to a “feel nice” status anyhow
I’ve been trying to follow my mentors advice of 10% of my time onsite, & 90% off site stuff – mainly some blog commenting & more recently guest posting. It musta paid off as I see the site (it’s pretty new) got a PR1, and the page I’m focussing mostly on a PR2, so I’m pretty pumped. I know it doesn’t mean much, but it makes the hours of tedious commenting seem a bit more worthwhile.
@Gene – I see Ana’s trafficgenerationcafe jumped from 0 to PR4
~Bruce
btw just sent in a request to do a guest post here…
Bruce,
I certainly understand. Going a year with no update at all, even thought the “value” of pagerank has continually gone down in my mind it is nice to finally SEE some. Even if it is just a “warm fuzzy” feeling.
90% is one heck of a lot of time to spend offsite. But I guess it does make sense. When starting out there is not much better you can do than guest posting and commenting.
My PR did not change much, but I’m not very advanced along the way. I did gain one PR point for several pages at the last update, which brought me a lot of joy.
The way I look at this is that Google believes those pages are trustable quality ones, as per Panda’s criteria…
However, I read about a lot of people not finding any reasonable explanation for their changes.
Alison
If you ae just starting out, any change at all in PR is nice. After all, it is really questionable how much it really “matters” these days. It is just nice to see it is going in the right direction. Even a listed PR 0 is better than the “not listed”. At least that shows your site is improving and has “some” PR.
(PR 0 could be PR .789392765 to Google. The listed PR is just an approximation. The Big G’s numbers are far more exact.)
Hi Steve, well Google is the Queen of the Internet and we can hardly do something about it. She has her good days and bad days (as every women:) What we can do? Well, we can ignore her or learn to live with her. Since she is really powerful lady it would be not clever to ignore her completely however you should not become her slave.
Lets face it the PR as it is today means nothing extra. Sure it is nice to have it as it gives you some more credibility in the eyes of your audience however you will not receive more visitors just because you are PRed, right?
Adam,
You are right. The best advice for PR is not to worry about it.
I think, in an oblique way it DOES drive extra traffic to your site though. It is, as far as i know, still ONE of the 200 ranking factors for a page. So a higher PR cn lead to ever so slightly higher SERP rankings.
How much is the question. But my guess is pretty much along with you: not very much. It is AT LEAST a factor that I would rather HAVE than NOT HAVE. Even if it is 100% social proof only.
Thanks for the comment!
I am very puzzled by this update. Sites I have left alone for ages got boosted from 0 to 2 – small sites with very iittle content I created a few months ago got pr1, and the site I am most proud of got nothing at all.
But as Gene said (hello Gene, pleased to meet you) Google can be harsh. But at least she noticed that I changed my hair, if if she didn’t notice that I had also moved out.
PS Steve – don’t want to put the answer to your riddle on my page in case others enjoy it – I don’t want to show my hand, and I certainly wouldn’t was anyone to think I was cheating 😉
You definitely got the riddle. (Not sure if it was hard…I just like that one).
My strong suspicion is that Google has been holding back real PR results for a long while. Likely in part to show people that they do not matter so much anymore. Ultimately who knows. It is nice to see -some- results. Anyhow, back to putting the finishing touches on my ebook. (yes..I release it in 1.5 hours and I am still tweaking it.)
Have a wonderful day!
Well, I have to say that I really begin to hate Google. I wish there’s another way to get good traffic without having to wonder in the dark. Sometimes it is so damn hard to know why Google doesn’t like your site.
My main site jumped from a 0 to a 2 and as you say while it does not mean much it does get you pumped. I am now busy creating new content and if I didn’t ghostwrite so much I would have tons more added by now!
At least it makes you feel good and right now that is good enough for me.
Thanks
Absolutely,
How much effect the PR has is negligible. Your traffic was the same before and after the PR update.
BUT…it does feel good to see a PR update. No matter what else it has some good psychological benefits. You KNOW your going in the right direction with backlinking at least.
That was the first post I have read about Google that I have enjoyed reading! I love the love/hate Google relationship comparisons that you did. And it’s true! We all anxiously wait for the Google approval, like school girls waiting by the phone.
Thanks Jason,
Yup that ole tease Google! Always playing with our emotions!
Google is truly unpredictable. No one knows what’s up with them anymore. In fact, the way you explained everything makes me believe that we should start re-strategizing on other sources of traffic like JV Partnerships and guest posting. These have no downside, at least not one I could recall.
All the same, let’s keep out fingers crossed as we watch the next move of ALMIGHTY GOOGLE.
Michael,
Absolutely! We cannot, of course, go to another search engine. Despite Bing and Yahoo, they are really unimportant.
But I DO believe it is essential to diversify as much as possible. Over time i have been burned by updates now and then. Never again.
When you spread out your methods of traffic sources and one of them disappears one day…it becomes and inconvenience…not a catastrophe.
Even within the Google Search world it is good to spread things out. Just like with investing money. When you diversify, you can be “hurt” by a sudden shift in the Big G. operational policy. But it will never “crush” you.
Yes steve,
I quite agree with you. Getting on the fast track with Google is the best approach. No need to put your eggs in one basket, go get another bucket and put the remaining there. In the course of accident, you would have succeeded in safeguarding a handful of eggs for breakfast. Lol!
I launched Mar 2010 and made a PR 3 Jump with the first update (one month later) but then nothing until this one, where I went up to a PR4 It wasn’t the PR 5 I’d like to have, but I guess that just means more guest posting, linkbuilding and the like! 🙂
Love it or hate it, there’s no point raging against Google for whatever changes they bring to the table. It’s not like anyone can leave Google for another search engine – it’s either adapt or die. I keep doing what I always do: continue adding useful content to my site and keep building high quality links and am slowly seeing my page rank rise. It’s slow, but it’s getting there.
Joe,
Very true! Even the value of PR is questionable these days too! Like you said, all you can really do is work hard, try to do the right things and the traffic will (hopefully) come.
You know I love your style Gene 🙂
This latest update is ridiculous in terms of generosity and over zealous PR love if you ask me! I got 5 or so PR3 page and a whole heap of PR2 pages – including a contact me page! WTF?
Seriously – that totally devalues the links I keep paying for… hmmmm must. rethink. strategy.
Alex,
Steve and Gene Fanclub President.
Well I long ago quit watching PR for my own sites except once or twice a year. I am more interested in search position, and whether my sites are still making money. I did check after the latest update, however, and one of my older sites took a slight dip.
I do watch the site of a friend, because she has such a massive list of backlinks listed by google, in the google bar, over 20,000. When I recently checked it had dropped to about 50. Wonder what that’s about. The thing is, she has never done anything in terms of SEO and has had all those backlinks for a couple of years. She’s not blackhat. Not even interested in SEO and she had all those backlinks. I’ll be watching to see if it was a glitch on google’s part.
Don’t we all have a love/hate relationship with the ‘old girl’?
Thanks for this post Steve is has left me with one big s*** eating grin. BTW this is the first time I’ve heard of pagerankalert.
I’ll give it a whirl.
Paul
Google can be helpful at times specially for the students who have to do some research for school. But actually Google is rude sometimes, because it tends to ignore what you are about to find. There are even traffics in blogging. Nice post!. XD