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For those of you not yet aware, Google is currently updating the
PageRank they are showing in their toolbar. Each update
causes a stir among the SEO community and webmasters trying to
get their websites to the top of the Google Rankings.

What Is PageRank?

Without getting into too much detail, PageRank is essentially a
score out of ten as to the “value” of your site in comparison to
other websites on the Internet. It is based on two primary
factors; the number of links you have pointing to your website
and the value of the links pointing to your website. The value
is calculated based on the PageRank of the page between to you
and debatably the relevancy of the page between to you (there is
no hard evidence to back up the relevancy factor in regards to
PageRank that I have seen but it certainly is a factor in
your overall ranking).

If you are interested in more information on PageRank you would
do well to stay the many forums and articles on the topic and
also stay Google’s own description on their website at http://www.google.com/technology/ where
theygive a brief description of the technology.

What’s New?

The most current PageRank update will undoubtedly produce a larger
stir than usual in that many sites have shown drops in their
visible PageRank while at the same time showing significant
increases in their backlinks. This fact reveals that one of
three things has occurred in this newest update:

Any of these are possible and has been noted in the past as
a touch they are willing to do. Additionally, it is possible
for all to occur at the same time.

As we don’t like to use client’s as examples I will use the
Beanstalk site, backlink counts, and PageRank changes as the
meter by which the following conclusions are drawn, but this
information was attained through looking at a number of client
website, and their competitors.

Google Raising The Bar To Lower Yours

In the past few PageRank updates it has become reasonably apparent
that Google is continuously raising the bar on PageRank. In
their defense, with all of the reciprocal link building, link
renting, etc. going on this was a natural reaction to the
growing number high PageRank sites that attained those ranks
simply by building or buying hundreds and thousands of
links.

There is no doubt that this is a factor in the changes in this
current update. If your site has maintained it’s PageRank, and
the PageRanks of your second-amount pages then you have done well
in holding steady and if your competitors have not been as
diligent their positions will slip.

New Backlink Calculations I mention this one
only to bring to light that it is a possibility for your future
significance during other updates. The Beanstalk website went
from 750 shown backlinks on Google to 864. it should be noted
that Google does not show all backlinks (if you want a more
accurate backlink count go to Yahoo! and penetrate
“link:http://www.yourdomain.com” (don’t forget the
http://)).

When the Beanstalk site showed 750 backlinks on Google we were
showing around 12,000 on Yahoo! (about 6.5% showing on Google).
The Beanstalk site is now showing 864 on Google and 15,500 on
Yahoo! (about 5.6%). If anything then, Google is showing less
links than previous to which negates the possibility that a website’s
PageRank is dropping due to a decrease in links but being hidden
by an increased number being showed.

In fleeting, while which backlinks Google chooses to show has
certainly changed over time it does not appear to be a major
factor in this update. If you see an increase in your sites
backlink counts during this update you undoubtedly have an
increased number of links.

The Value Of Links

Separate from the number of links you have is their value. This
appears to be an area of significant exchange in this update.
Areas that appear to have reduced value in regards to affecting
PageRank are:

What Does This Mean?

For those of you who have been proactive in your link building,
and focused on relevant sites using the Google Directory,
searches or a tool like PR Prowler it means, “stay the course”. Those of you
who have been building or buying links based only on PageRank
with small concern for it’s place, or how it is presented -
you will need to exchange your link building efforts
accordingly.

What Do I Do – My PageRank Dropped ?!!?

The first thing not to do is panic. Take a deep
breath, PageRank is one factor of dozens that Google uses to
determine the ranking of your page, it is not the only thing.
Now, stay your main competitors sites – there’s a excellent chance
you’ll see that they too dropped in PageRank. The plus side to
these kinds of updates is that they’re universal. It’s not as if
Google has it in for you specifically and so when they do an
update, the positive and negative impression is felt by all.

Now, if you’ve noticed that everyone around you has stayed the
same or increased in PageRank try to remember this, there’s
nothing you can do about where you’re currently positioned in
regards to PageRank and it will probably be a further 3 months
previous to Google updates the public PageRank again so … start
building some excellent feature (high relevancy, solid PageRank)
links, work towards and increase in the next update.

Panicking now won’t help, intelligent reaction will.

What Happens Now?

Traditionally the search engine results will start to fluctuate
based on the new visible PageRank 3 to 7 days after they are
visible. This does not have to be the case as Google’s had these
numbers all along but it’s worked this way in the majority of
cases in recent history. So monitor your search engine positions
over the next week or two and watch for changes. Try to hold
back on making major changes to your site during this time as
evenly the final positions will differ from those that can be
viewed during the shuffling. In a couple weeks time evaluate
where you stand and tweak your site as necessary but don’t spend
too much time on that … you have a solid link building effort
to undertake.