Google and their 2 sets of PageRank

 

Many people obsess about PageRank (PR); they crave it like some crack addict. They wake up in a bath of sweat so they can run into their office and check the Google toolbar. PageRank gotta have my fix, need it can’t live without it.

If only they realised that what THEY see is different to what GOOGLE see! If only they realised that Google has TWO sets of PageRank. Actual PR and Toolbar PR (TBPR).

TBPR is related to the actual PR that Google uses, but is not constant. TBPR is a value that was snapshotted a while before it is exported. Technically TBPR is never updated as that would suggest that it is brought up to date, it is not. It is simply snapshotted and exported to the toolbar at a later date (as later as 3 months on occasion). I believe it is indicative of what PR WAS, but not what it IS

Actual PR is updated on a constant basis via ever flux, IE a page is added to the index, the PR value is added to the system and it propagates across the system, . The same is true for a site/page that is removed from the index. This is everflux, this is the PR that Google use in their algorithm, and NO ONE but Google can view it.

Many people are a little confused with regard content and PageRank having a relationship. The content of a website has absolutely no relation to the PR value. PR is PURELY about who links to you and their PR worth. Google ranks pages using 2 main streams Value and relevance. Value is PR and relevance is content (yours and the content of the sites/pages that link to you), although obviously there is a crossover as within that link will be PR also).

I better explain that a little.

When a site links to you it transfers two items

1. PR – this is a straight numeric value and is unaffected by anything else.

2. Relevance – This is all about context. The value of the link can be affected by many things. IE if your site is about black cats, and everyone links to you using the anchor text ‘white cats’ then BANG you are going to rank for ‘white cats’ Your page rank will have a value of ‘A’. If people link to you using the anchor text ‘black cats’ Bang, you are going to rank for the phrase ‘black cats’ your PR value however will STILL REMAIN as ‘A’ however because it is a purely mathematical calculation.

Hopefully that has set my stall out, but finally, is it right to say that TBPR means nothing?

Google TBPR DOES mean ‘something’ it means ‘something’ to people who do not understand SEO or web marketing in general. People are getting brainwashed by others into linking on PR values. This is simply wrong. They are not linking to valuable resources because those resources might have a low PR. My site ranks for phrases like ‘internet marketing consultancy’ with a PR4, I have a client site that is top 3 for the phrase ‘transport services’ and he is a PR3.

So does TBPR mean anything? Of course TBPR means ‘something’ that fact can not be disputed, what CAN be debated is WHAT it means and WHO it means anything to.

Written by JC Edwards (Old Welsh Guy) an internet marketing consultant based in Wales www.oldwelshguy.co.uk

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