The Google PageRank Does Not Change on My Blog?
My PR has not Increased even though I have a lot of Backlinks? What can I do?
This is a question a couple my friends have asked me about sites they have been working hard on over the past couple months. Several of them have told me they spend several hours each week backlinking and they still do not see a visible change in their Google PageRank.
This is completely normal. Google Page Rank can be hard to understand, because of the many functions of the Google search engine or “Googlebot”. The reason Google likes to keep this information “secret” is think of all the ways people could exploit the Google search algorithm if they knew exactly how it worked.
Page Rank Factors to Consider
There are several things you need to know about the way that Google PageRank is calculated to get the most out of the work you put into your site.
For a detailed guide covering all aspects of Google page rank and how it works, check out:
Google PageRank: What Do We Know About It?
(The terms “Actual” and “Visible” that I will be using are terms I created and are not official Google names.)
Actual PageRank
The first thing you need to be aware of is that Google Page Rank is calculated all the time, every minute of everyday. It is such a big task that it needs to be constantly evaluated to give sites an accurate ranking.
This type calculation should be considered the “actual pagerank”. It is the type of PR that actually affects the amount of organic traffic you get to your site each day. Most people mistake this number for the “visible pagerank” they can see in the Google toolbar.
Visible PageRank
Visible pagerank does not have an impact on anything other than bragging rights and a gauge for pricing when selling advertising space on your website.
Because true page rank is calculated all the time, any changes you make to your site that will eventually increase the PR number displayed in the Google toolbar, will have a positive daily affect on your site and the amount of organic traffic that flows to it.
Visible PageRank is only updated every couple months by Google, because they spend the majority of their time calculating the actual pageranks of sites. If Google spent all it’s time updating the information you see on the Google toolbar they wouldn’t get anything else done.
For a good idea of when the next Google PageRank update will occur (and the times between past updates) check out the following site for a great guide with detailed information:
“Well then I should be able to judge this based on my number of backlinks right?”
Yes and no. Backlinks are constantly being tallied and spidered, much in the same way page rank is constantly being evaluated. Estimates state that is can take up to 2 full months of Google spidering the web to get an accurate idea of the amount of backlinks pointing towards your site.
Once again, you need to be patient to see these numbers displayed in SEO toolbars and results.
Your best bet for gauging the effectiveness of SEO improvements that you make to your site is by using Alexa. (imho)
Alexa - The Web Information Company
Alexa? I have heard that Alexa rank is useless?
Alexa Rank is about as useful as Google “Toolbar” PageRank (visible pagerank) in that the only thing it affects is bragging rights or potential value for ads sold on your website.
The reason Alexa Rank is useful is because the Alexa Toolbar functions similar to the way Google Toolbar does.
Users install a Toolbar that gathers statistics on websites and creates an overall picture of how valuable that site is on the internet. The benefit of Alexa is that they update their visible numbers on a weekly basis rather than Google that can take months to display this information.
Because there is a quicker turn around on the information being displayed you can use Alexa to judge the effectiveness of various SEO tactics you are using on your website. As your Alexa rank improves you can tell the changes you are implementing are having a positive effect on your overall site ranking.
This can help you judge what methods are most helping your site, and which ones are not worth your time.
Overview
This guide is a general rant than anything else. I am by no means an expert on SEO or Google PageRank. These are just things I have picked up from researching different topics online, and tracking changes I have made to Pseudorant.
The key is to be patient and stay the course. The more you work on your site the more it will payoff in the long run.
I hope you enjoyed this article and thanks for checking out Pseudorant. We appreciate the support!
Comments
9 Responses to “The Google PageRank Does Not Change on My Blog?”
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I’m still on PageRank 1 lol, hopefully on the next PageRank Update, it can go up to 3 or something :{
There is some controversy over how representative Alexa’s user base is of typical Internet behavior. If http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?url=www.fortunehotels.in Alexa’s user base is a fair statistical sample of the internet user population, Alexa’s ranking should be quite accurate.
Top bloggers do not pay much attention on PR factor and they said that PR is just nothing to worry about. All you need to do is put a really good content.
Michael: Hey I’m still 0 hehe! I’m hoping that the improvements we have made the site and the content we are adding will have some effect on this when Google updates the Toolbar PR.
Alexa: I have heard some of the buzz around Alexa pursuing certain interests for their own gain. I use the service mainly the “statistical sample” you mention in order to gauge the effectiveness of improvements I make to my site. Since they update more frequently than Google this gives you a rough idea of any placement changes.
Infinite: I have many different thoughts surrounding that philosophy. I do not think there is ever one set answer to something. With the astounding number of blogs being created each day, I think it takes more than good content to get noticed now a days. (Although that is definitely required)
As someone once mentioned, you can have the largest Walmart in the World, but if no one knows it’s in the middle of the desert you are not likely to get many customers. I appreciate the feedback!
I’m glad you highlight the difference in Actual vs. Visible PR. Google has nothing to gain by making sure that the toolbar’s PageRank is updated. They seem to do it every 2-3 months but that doesn’t mean PR isn’t being calculated in the background with their ranking algo.
The ultimate, best way to deal with it is to do your link development, document it internally and turn your attention back to attractive content. After all, it only takes about a PR2 to rank for most anything…
I’m glad to read this. I started my blog in March and my Alexa rank has been getting better and better but I still have no google page rank. Now that I know how long it takes them, and my first blog post was less than 3 months ago, I feel much better.
This post was biproduct of a few other things I was reading about the way PageRank works but because it’s so confusing, I thought I should post this. Looking at the past PR updates I’d say Google is due anytime now.
well,as per my understanding, PR doesn’t depend only on the number of backlink’s. If you have backlinks from 100 PR0 or PR1 blogs, it is hardly of any use. On other hand, if have you have 10 backlinks from blogs with 6+ PR, it can help you a lot in increasing your PR. Apart from backlinks, PR also depends on the number of posts & age of your blog. This is what i know. There can be lot of other hidden factors for calculating the PR.
That’s a good point. Keep in mind that those PR6 votes can be diluted as well. For example, it would be more valuable to get a link from a PR4 page with 2 outgoing links on that page, than it would be from a page with PR6 but 50 outgoing links on the page. The PR is distributed throughout the links so the more links, the more diluted the weight of the vote becomes.
Also keep in mind that some sites with PR0 and PR1 will eventually increase making those links gradually more valuable.