Mon 30 Mar 2009
When Is The Next Google Pagerank Update?
Blurb by Shaun Anderson (Hobo)
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One of the reasons I write in this blog is transparency. 3 different people asked me today when will the next Google Pagerank update happen, and when I say they shouldn’t be concerned with this, there’s always a little surprise as there is so many people in forums discussing Google PR, Toolbar PR and it’s “update”.
Google exports a snapshot of toolbar PR data which in December was less than a month out of date (2 weeks?) and this data is a simplified version you can see using the free Google toolbar. People reported an update in February although I don’t think this was network wide like the December export.
There is an update due any time now – if you really want to know when it happens subscribe to the blog and you will be updated when Toolbar Pagerank… updates.
Real Toolbar PR is calculated constantly we are told, so the actual toolbar PR you see is ‘out of date’ and only an indication of your REAL PR. I think it takes @24 hours for a page to accrue real PR – as I measured it (which could be flawed of course but it does seem alarmingly accurate).
I think you only need a lot of pagerank if you have a lot of pages. I think a page only needs a smidgeon of real PR to rank. Pages have PR not domains as I understand it, although the PR you have you need to spread about your pages by linking to all the pages from pages that have PR.
I’m interested in Real PR, not toolbar pagerank. For me, the most useful aspect of the Toolbar Pagerank update is you can see a quick visualisation how your spreading your PR amongst your pages. That’s about it. Even then it’s buggy – why you should be using your own metrics. Perfectly good pages have white bar and grey bar PR. They still rank well, they have more PR than other pages on the site that do show Toolbar values.
One things for sure also in my opinion – if Google are using Pagerank these days, it’s not the same algorithm everybody cites – clearly Google tweaks this or at least the end results indicate such a change. You don’t need to know a thing about PR to make a quality site. All you need to ensure is your pages (especially important pages) are well linked to – Google will handle the rest.
Google Pagerank just doesn’t work the way it used to, it’s harder to manipulate, and results can be eratic. Google is clearly being meaner or selective with PR – links that once transferred PR now don’t (visibly at least). More a reason to forget about it especially if your site is otherwise healthy in terms of ranking and visitors.
Forget about the next Pagerank update and think about where your next link is coming from or what the next page on your website will be.
As I mentioned things change, if you’ve noticed anything of interest recently put it in the comments as I haven’t monitored it closely for months.
All link droppers that mention having a higher pr page to rank better in SERPS will be ridiculed in the comments (if not by me by someone else)…. and I will probably delete the link. Things are never equal enough for PR to be the ranking factor which you above a competitor (IMO).
PS – It’s worth noting that nobody really knows how Pagerank works these days. Not outside Google anyway.
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Yes, but I want to know when as my webmaster tools account is showing me as having some medium pagerank pages. Will this mean I’m up to PR4? It showed this a couple of weeks ago, and then they all dropped back to low. So hoping for update before that happens again …!
I agree 100% that the only thing that really matters is where my pages rank on a search. Although it’s nice to see your page rank go up, it means nothing if your actual rankings for your keywords don’t.
A site that is listed in spot 23 today at a page rank of 3 that is listed at spot 23 the day the new rankings come out at a page rank of 4 is still making the same money or getting the same number of viewers.
Great article! I hope it helps people put things into perspective.
“if you really want to know when it happens subscribe to the blog and you will be updated when Toolbar Pagerank… updates” – wittily invented answer.
Do you always write a special post about PR update when it comes?
Sadly, yes I do. Even sadder in the past at Webmasterworld I was credited with spotting a few in the past.
Been saying this for ages – you deserve a standing ovation.
How did you work out that PR takes 24 hours to accrue? Just being nosey – as the last time I tested (which was three years ago TBH it was taking around four days from page spidering)
Mike I use a simple word experiment which seem(ed) to be quite accurate at the time – still ok too. You need to identify a word that apears in the exact same place, not in the links, not in titles etc – the theory was see if I could force Google to rank on nothing more than PR (messed up the test a bit though since then though).
Mike I should also answer your question
I was keeping an eye where new posts went in the list after publishing (ie they went to the bottom but interestingly above the pages Google didnt like)
Then they popped up the list, but this was subject to what looked like PR itineration.
It looks as though this is pretty accurate, for my purposes anyway. Note however I have messed it up a lot since then at the top.
I will check in the next update.
I noticed some really weird changes at the end of Feb start of March. One of my clients sites had a secure https:// link appearing in position 1 instead of the normal http:// link. This affected a few on my clients sites and while I could sort out any issues with this, I had no warning at all. I recieved an email direct from one of my contacts at Google and he said: “If there’s a domain move going on at the moment, then yeah, you should expect some short term weirdness. Generally, I tell people to expect 3 months of misery on a changeover. It does’t often take that long to self-regulate, but on occasion it can.”
I read this as an algorithm update to be honest…
It started today. At least every site on the www was at PR0 today for several hours. A sign?
Did you know that having a higher PR will help you rank better in the SERPs ?
From my experience, the PR update was carried out every 3 months interval. Since last update was on Dec 31,2008 the next one should be on this March 31, 2009. But I don’t know why it doesn’t happen yet. Do they change their schedule? I just wonder to see whether my blog can get its PR again since it was slapped to zero by Mr.G due to paid links, I supposed. And, what should I do to bring my PR back. Should I beg to them?
@Paul
I am taking this blog pagerank indicator with a grain of salt. I think there is no direct correlation between blog pagerank and blog success. A high blog pagerank does not guarantee the blog is gonna make it big. I have seen successful blogs with zero blog pagerank.