Google PageRank and backlink update

Google PageRank and backlink update

The dominant search engine Google, gave a few people a nice Christmas gift, in their virtual stockings.

Google is busily updating its backlinks and PageRank. Like Santa, Google is making a list, checking it twice, and finding a few sites naughty, and a few sites nice.

Reports are appearing, from some webmasters, that their PageRank (PR) has increased. PageRank (one word) is the measure Google uses to evaluate the importance of a website. The PageRank calculation is based on the number, and already existing PageRank, of a site's incoming links.

A PageRank increase is usually accompanied by an increase in the number of backlinks (links coming into your site) that Google is counting. Google does not list incoming links that are lower than PageRank 4 (PR4). The other links are taken into consideration in the PR measurement, however.

To find out your own blog's PageRank, you need to install the Google Toolbar.

It can be found here:

Google Toolbar Download

Unfortunately, a Mac based Toolbar is unavailable.

Other webmasters are reporting the opposite is happening. They have found a decrease in their reported backlinks from Google.

That decrease in backlinks, and corresponding PR drop, is Google's equivalent of receiving a stocking filled with a lump of coal.

Bloggers have usually done well in Google's backlink reports and PageRank distribution. Because bloggers are such generous, and frequent linkers, blogs have done extremely well in Google.

At the same time, bloggers have placed almost no importance on chasing Google PageRank. Because of that lack of concern with PR numbers, blogs have been doing the right thing all along. Bloggers trade links, add links, and create in-post links to other blogs and websites, regardless of any PageRank concerns.

That good karma is returned to bloggers, and many don't even know it!

Many PR conscious webmasters refuse any link trades with blogs or websites that display a PR4 or lower. In the long run, that Scrooge attitude is harmful to a site or blog. That shortsighted view is not shared by the vast majority of blogs.

The value of any weblog or website is to the visitor.

Providing your readers, with interesting and informative posts and content, is what a blog or any other website is all about.

Whether PageRank is important to you or not, your generous link adding and trading policies are of benefit to you, and to your visitors.

You can't get a better holiday gift than that!