Google AdWords
Marketing Pilgrim are reporting that the days of PageRank sculpting are over.
You mean you don’t know what PageRank sculpting is?
“PageRank sculpting is an advanced SEO technique that gained popularity in 2007, when Matt Cutts pointed out Google was using rel=”nofollow” to control which videos YouTube passed PageRank value (commonly referred to as “link juice”) to. SEOs liked the technique as something site owners could do to direct more link juice to more important pages, and not waste a page’s link authority on navigational links—but not anymore.”
Sigh, sigh, sigh.
The idea of PageRank is a simple one. From the article Introducing PageRank – shattering the myth:
“PageRank is undoubtedly an important factor in how much traffic you will receive from Google. It is, however, merely one component in your arsenal of tools to win the battle for one particular search engine. Even with the constantly evolving web, and the ever-tightening systems employed by the search engines to quantify the usefulness of a website, content is still by far the most important factor, and will invariably form the base on which everything else is built.”
So far so good, yet an astonishing number of people spend an incredible amount of time and energy chasing the elusive PageRank ghost.
Every single time there’s a Google Dance, tens (hundreds?) of thousands of people all over the world panic, and hundreds of forums and newsgroups are full of panic-driven postings:
“Help! My PageRank has fallen from 6 to 5! What can I do?”
“My PageRank is down but I’ve done nothing wrong! What should I do to get it back?”
“I need help restoring my PageRank. Does anyone have a good contact in Google?”
If you’re planning on attending the Software Industry Conference next month, myself and Sharon Housley are co-presenting a session on “SEO – Tapping Into Google for Free” on Friday July 17th.
If you’re not going to be there, here’s the nutshell explanation:
Stop freaking out about PageRank. Build your website’s content instead.
There. That’s better.
I actually heard a guy (isn’t this always the case) say that Google actually is suspicious about sites with to many REL=Nofollow link – because WHY should a site want ppl to follow links that isn’t good enough for indexing… I chose to believe that statement
I also try not to bother about PR…but to be honest, PageRank and Alexa rating is what my management cares about. And since I can’t say “This how Google ACTUALLY does it” I’m left to listening to “but everyone (!) says it’s important, therefor it must be”
So how about a post on “10 tips on how to defend not freaking out over PR/Alexa ranking/SERPs in Google when googling the company name/etc.”
Dave,
It’s always good to hear someone, such as yourself, stating this. Though it’s not anything you haven’t said for years I should add as you’ve been consistent on this point. I’ve raved about content on my own blog, been dissed by the “eXperts” on various forums yet consistently see the results – and it’s so darn easy to test.
I honestly believe the *reason* people don’t get this message is because it takes planning and ongoing effort to produce worthwhile content, instead choosing to hunt for the elusive, mysterious elixir that exists nowhere outside of scams and their own minds.
Keep up the good work!!
Exactly… The need for page rank sculpting is that you overthink, or your site structure sucks. I would say nofollows on links did more harm than protecting from spam bots. there are more ways to determine if link is good or non-related.
I have always told my clients, a lot of whom measure the SEO “success” of hiring out with PageRank results, that content and links are the biggest factor in Page Rank determinations, but if you have thousands of links and no relevancy to your website content, then you won’t get the results you are looking for. They must work together on many different levels.