Q1 2008 PageRank review

Posted by multippt

The entire update for the first quarter of the year is not yet over at the time of this post, considering that a random selection of pages had their PageRank updated. Of course, since it is not yet over, things can pretty much change over the next few days.

It is quite nice to know that the PageRank update this time appears more balanced - there are about the same amount of pages which had a reduction in PageRank as the ones with an increase in PageRank.

Comfirmation of update

There are reports of several sites having an update in PageRank. True enough, there are sufficient amounts of sites that have a change in PageRank in their main pages (both increases and decreases). Some new sites (those with no PageRank in pages except for the main page) also have internal pages assigned a PageRank of more than 0.

The update

There are not as many sites being penalized by Google at one shot compared to the last update in the last quarter (September), probably meaning that there are more people adhering to Google’s publicized guidelines. While there is less sites being penalized this round, it doesn’t mean that there are none. Fortunately, as with any large-scale PageRank penalties, there is large-scale PageRank restoration as well.

Google appears to update PageRank for random pages (particularly internal pages), so you may want to check out some internal pages for an update, rather than looking out for it on your main page. Most of the changes appeared 2-3 days ago (Friday). While no other changes are seen during the weekend, the update probably is still ongoing. Some sites have their PageRank updated completely, but they are generally those who already have a PageRank. Newer sites may take a little longer to get most of their pages assigned a PageRank.

As this PageRank update is on a smaller scale compared to the previous one, not many people may notice it. In fact, it took until the 12th of January (10th is where the update is known to start) before people began to notice changes in the green bar. The PageRank update is most visible on new sites where the change is usually seen on internal pages, as well as on the pages of moderately sized sites. Large sites like Yahoo do not really have a noticeable change in PageRank (Statcounter is an exception though).

It’s still not over 

Remember that the PageRank update is still not over yet (this is day 3); it usually takes about a week before the whole update is complete. Judging from the Google directory which is known for showing the most up-to-date values, the new PageRank has not been passed on to sites like Engadget and Gizmodo. In addition, some sites appear to have an incomplete set of pages with PageRank, particularly new sites whereby some internal pages has a PageRank that was not present, while the front page does not have a change (e.g. an internal page has a PR of 4, while the main has 0). It’s also a hit-and-miss, so some pages may be hit with a PageRank update the first round, while others get their’s later. So, expect Google to be dishing out more updates in the coming days.

What pages do Google update first?

Sometimes Google prefers starting out from the internal pages, working upwards to the front page, so that when you notice a PageRank change in your site’s main page you get to find other pages with a change in PageRank as well (usually happens to sites with no PageRank allocated). At other times it does the opposite - starting from the front and going downwards to the internal pages of your site (usually happens to sites which already has PageRank). It’s usually the change in the main page that triggers the alarms.

What are some of the pages Google gives a PageRank first? If you own a blog, they are generally the categories and the tag pages, or perhaps your “about” page (on other occasions, it updates the front page as well). How about a forum? You will probably not notice a PageRank update unless the main page has an update.

The point of PageRank?

PageRank doesn’t really determine how well you rank in search results (while it does influences it, the effect is not really significant enough). However, it is a nice indicator, since almost everyone knows that it takes a little more than sheer luck to get a high PageRank (talk about bragging rights :p).