Google PageRank – Does It Still Matter?
By Anna Johnson on October 27th, 2009Can we all agree that Google PageRank is pretty much irrelevant as an indication of a webpage’s authority or its Google search engine ranking?
After all, Google recently removed the PageRank metric from Google Webmaster Tools. And, as quoted by Marketing Pilgrim’s Andy Beal, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Susan Moskwa explained the removal by saying:
“We’ve been telling people for a long time that they shouldn’t focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it’s the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true. We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it.”
You’ll still find PageRank in the Google Toolbar, so a cynic might say that Google is still effectively perpetuating the myth that PageRank matters.
Commenting on this Andy Beal writes:
“This really leads you to conclude that role of PageRank has been reduced to nothing more than a comfort blanket for SEO noobs. I say this, with a high degree of confidence that most experienced SEOs pour over the data in Google Webmaster Tools, whereas those new to the industry likely let the toolbar be their only guiding light.”
Interestingly, however, Andy also says he still uses PageRank. To him the absence of a PageRank score means a website (or webpage?) isn’t ‘behaving’ in Google’s index, which might be a reason to investigate.
Source: Andy Beal, “Google is Finally Killing PageRank,” Marketing Pilgrim, October 15, 2009
