Google Page rank has been a topic of discussion for a long time. It is believed that page rank directly or indirectly affects your search engine rankings. A few years back Google told most webmasters that page rank is in fact 1 of the 200 different elements of a site that they use to calculate the search engine rankings.

But unlike Google’s statement, most SEO experts and companies considers Google Page rank a important element of SEO. Almost every webmaster, big or small keeps an eye on their page ranks. In some cases page rank can be a deciding factor while selling advertisements or getting advertisers for the website.

Google to remove Page rank?

A few years ago back in 2007 google requested feedback from webmasters weather or not to remove pagerank from the webmaster tools. But at that time it was rejected by most webmasters. However recently Google with the introduction of Google Labs for webmaster tools and other changes, also removed the Pagerank Data from webmaster Tools. This change however went unnoticed by most of us, however it has surely started a endless discussion and line of questions. With the first one being, is Google going to remove pagerank?

Susan Moskwa from Google explained it like this:

"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."

There is no doubt Google has been trying to tell webmasters for so long to improve the content and quality of their websites and not just concentrate on building their pagerank. We all know how most webmasters try to gain pagerank, which is by link building.

Does this means an end to link building?

Trying to gain pagerank not only encourages link farms or spam but loads of different problems. Perhaps which is why Google is having a hard time due to the ‘pagerank addicted webmasters’.

But  it does not end just here, Google’s move has left many of us startled. What should we do now? Just completely forget about pagerank? But how is that going to help many of us who depend on pagerank for selling advertising banners on our pages, seo services, link building services??

Is Google changing its algorithm for ‘serps’? Maybe or maybe not, but it surely gets you thinking. The google toolbar still shows pagerank. But its been removed from the webmaster tools. So pagerank is just for show, now? It kinda takes out the whole point of having pagerank in the first place.

Will it affect online business?

Lets not start speculating that Google is going to remove pagerank completely without any official announcements. [since they didn't announce removing them from webmaster tools we can't be sure] But telling webmasters not to concentrate on pagerank building is definitely going to affect business. Specially for those people who own directories, article directories, link sales, seo services, link building services, etc. The list is endless, i mean if Google tells you to forget about pagerank, why would you and thousands of other webmaster spend precious time and money trying to build links for a good PR?

It is going to have some minor effects on blogging community as well. Its going to kill the purpose of ‘dofollow’ blogs. For some blogs there will be loss of comments aswell, maybe link exchanges will also decline.

Are their any advantages?

There are many advantages, firstly there will be less spam. No more link farms and it will be a boost to some ‘real’ sites and blogs with unique content. Why?

Because if Google removes PR, it would mean all high PR sites and link spammers might drop and other sites will rank better depending on the quality of content, this is good news form a searchers point of view.

But will Google remove PR?

That is the question which everyone seems to be asking right now. Is google thinking to remove PR from its serp algorithm? If it does how is it going to affect us all?

The answer is not yet clear but from recent changes, we can see where Google seems to be heading. Keeping all assumptions on one side, it could simply mean Google is trying to deviate the attention of webmasters from the PR craze and wants them to start building content and quality? I think that would be the most safest way to understand Googles Intentions, but no one is sure what lays ahead in store for us.

What should i do?

There is nothing you need to worry much right now, but if you are thinking into starting directories or getting involved in link building business, directly or indirectly then i would recommend you to start finding a new path. Because many webmasters are now not worried about pagerank, this would mean less business for such services.

If  you are a pagerank addict, continuously trying to get a good PR. Specially by spending lots of money on link building services and good SEO services then its time to stop and just concentrate on your content quality along with ‘on page’ SEO. I also found many bloggers using blog & forum commenting as a method to build quality links, this will not work anymore so instead try providing quality to your readers and build a network. At Least your likely to save some time.

And if Google ever removes pagerank completely then it will have different affects on different businesses, try to avoid indulging in such business or services in which having a good PR is necessary.

*****

Until next time, have a good day and a great week ahead, let me know what you think of this move from Google?

SJ

WordPress just announced the release of v2.8 which they officially call as ‘baker’ named after chet baker, the new version if out and beta testing is over so you can download it now and upgrade your wordpress blog.

The new version has around 790 bug fixes!, themes and widgets have also been improved along with new features and improved speed!

One of the new features include the ability to browse the entire wordpress theme gallery from your blogs dashboard and install any theme or plugin with just a single click, their are also newer options on each page and the widget interface has also been redesigned.

If you want the complete list of the new features and fixes then head out to the wordpress codex pages. That’s one hell of a list!

and to read more about this new release head out to the wordpress blog make sure you watch that video.

but before you upgrade i would advise you to test it differently with your current theme and plugins as some people reported few plugin problems i am still using 2.7 and will wait a few more weeks before upgrading it, anyways enjoy this new release.

Keep up to date with wordpress on wordpress blog here and get all the information & help you need by going to wordpress codex site here.

Update: the latest version of wordpress currently as of may 2011 is v3.1.3 while the beta for wordpress v3.2 is also out. If you are blogging with wordpress then please update it to the latest version.

Don’t forget to share this post, subscribe to my RSS Feeds & follow me on twitter @sameerjoad till then have a good day,

SJ