On PageRank

Google recalculated PageRank this week, so your site’s PageRank may have gone up or down. Should you care?

Here’s Google’s official word on it:

When Google was founded, one key innovation was PageRank, a technology that determined the “importance” of a webpage by looking at what other pages link to it, as well as other data. Today we use more than 200 signals, including PageRank, to order websites, and we update these algorithms on a weekly basis. For example, we offer personalized search results based on your web history and location.

In other words, PageRank is one factor, and only one, in your rankings with Google. All things being equal, a site with higher PageRank ought to be offered to searchers before one with lower PageRank, but how often are all things equal?

Since PageRank is a measure of importance, you have to figure that the most important site won’t always be the best one for your query. for example, NASA’s website (PR9) is certainly way more important than our little lab site, FreshPlans (PR3). If, intrigued by President Obama’s announcement of the new National Robotics Initiative, you decide to do a general search for information on robots, NASA would be a better choice for you. If for some reason you want to make robot cupcakes in celebration, though, FreshPlans is your place.  It wouldn’t be reasonable for Google to offer you NASA’s robotics page if you wanted a robot bulletin board idea.

Is PageRank unimportant? It probably depends on the circumstances. The first thing to consider is that PageRank is public. We changed domains in January and lost all our PageRank (in spite of following the rules precisely). I think it was probably bad for business, since we are an SEO firm, and I’m very happy that we’re back at PR5 where we belong. Even if you’re not an SEO firm, people visiting your website can see how important Google thinks you are, and they may use this information in deciding between you and another company. Does a more important pizza parlor serve up better pizza? Probably not, but you can’t be sure that everyone knows that.

Roughly speaking, here’s what we usually take it to mean:

• 0 — new or not considered useful
• 1 — usually gets skipped, but would mean uncertain for a fairly new site, or if it’s been around a while, then it’s not considered a worthwhile site
• 2 — new site at first recalculation; a good sign for a new site but bad for an old one
• 3 — typical ranking for a good site with limited range
• 4 — a mature site with limited reach
• 5 — a good site
• 6 — an influential site
• 7 — an important site
• 8 — a significant site, probably for an important organization
• 9-10 internet royalty

Generally, small business sites should be in the 3-5 range, and be happy if they’re above. If they’re below, they should make changes.