Q3 PageRank update review

Posted by multippt

Looks like Google has rolled out another PageRank update. Overall, most sites won’t experience any change in PageRank. However, there is still a significant number of sites whose PageRanks have fallen by one or two points, usually for sites that have been around for quite some time. New sites are fairing fairly well, most of them achieving an average of between 2 to 3. There were improvements in PageRank for some relatively well-known sites, such as Youtube (why of course, a Google product). However most others simply experienced a dip in PageRank, and well-known ones are not spared either.

Though, if compared to the previous update, the previous one would be much enjoyed by most webmasters (firsly being that there were much more increases in PR than decreases). Seems like Google may have tweaked the alogarithm a little, or it could be that most webmasters are relaxing after preparing all that Search Engine Optimisation last year.

The previous PageRank update was on May, which means this update came a lot more sooner than expected. Judging from past updates in January, February, and May, it does seem that Google is updating PageRank much more regularly, with its cycles becoming shorter (hopefully moving towards the 1 month cycle Google had about 6 years ago). The current PageRank cycle is estimated to span across 1.5 to 3 months.

May PageRank update review

Posted by multippt

Looks like the PageRank update is going to be great news for webmasters, since there is an overall increase in PageRank across sites, unlike the previous 3 PageRank updates that have done the opposite. This update has been carried out over several days, so you may want to check out inner pages of your site if you went PageRank hunting on the day of the update.

This update saw more increases than decreases, partly because the main penalty round occurred a week before the update began (probably the first signal that an update was iminent). The penalties involved mainly new sites selling paid links, so it does seem that Google is tightening its stance against paid links. This is not expected since after all, Google gave their official message that nofollow paid links are not allowed and subjected to penalties. The paid link business have gone a lot more quiet (but it doesn’t mean that webmasters are not giving up on paid links though).

Google may have also changed the weightage of links, now giving internal links slightly more power or perhaps all links in general. Probably great news for site owners who have been building links for a while.

May PageRank update

Posted by multippt

Looks like Google decided to update the visible PageRank on the Google toolbar between the 30th of April and the 1st of May. Well, at least it came after much speculation (on Digitalpoint anyway) of PageRank updates following a string of PageRank penalties across sites that were caught selling paid links.

Overall, most sites received an increase in PageRank, while others had the same PageRank, which is good news for most sites on the whole. Of course, it is bad news for guilty site owners who have sold paid links, since Google is being extremely vigilant (and smarter) on what links are considered paid. Penalties are also carried out during the update, but most of it a few days before the PageRank update. This is done so presumably so that you can address the issue, and request for reconsideration, and have the right PageRank in time for the incoming update.

Absurd PageRank allocation in Firefox

Posted by multippt

Update: Ironically, this doesn’t show up on the Google toolbar for Firefox. Pretty odd, ain’t it? 

Looks like Google is showering a whole lot of PageRank juice on Mozilla.org. Alone in the Add-ons section of the site, over 800,000 pages have a PageRank of 8, as if the PageRank on these pages are spoofed.

Here are the following pages which have a PageRank of 8
-All extension pages
-All user profiles
-All themes
-All pages in discussions about any extensions

This is not exclusive to Firefox as well; Pages about Thunderbird, Seamonkey and Sunbird also have the mysterious PageRank 8 allocation for almost all pages viewable.

Even W3 is not able to match up with the amount of PageRank 8 pages one can find on the site. Wordpress isn’t any closer either.

PageRank Q2 2008: Silent February update & Webmasters Central

Posted by multippt

Google is sure quick in updating the new PageRanks - this time 2 months faster than expected (well, the update is just 1 month away from the previous, and the expected cycle is about 3 months). Though, the update is once again… sloppy and probably incomplete. Though, you should be able to see a change in the front page of your site. Sadly, this update also appears to be the opposite of the previous update - chances are inner pages may sometimes be stripped off their PageRank, despite being linked all over the place.

Note that the update is probably not completed, as most sites may not have a change in PageRank. Then again, Google usually dishes out everything within 24 hours. It’s still a hit-and-miss though.

Interestingly, PageRank appears to be going down yet once again this time round, with Google even hitting its OWN pages (iGoogle, anyone?). The great news, is that the new PageRanks now probably comes without a penalty in most cases (unlike that horrid update last year). The fall in PageRank for particular pages shows that Google has changed something somewhere in its algorithm. Even backlinks shown by the inaccurate “link:” command shows a change, though an unusual one since apparently the link count is reduced even further by half.

There are also some unusual PageRanks - particularly high PageRanks given to blogs which have no backlinks (or blogs with mainly exchanged links). Sites which previously have no PageRank originally appears to have their PageRank restored, such as Technorati.

Back on the Google webmasters central, it does seem that Google has got all the backlink counts a lot more less compared to the past. It’s as if Google lost a large chunk of your backlinks, particularly internal links. It’s also pretty unusual that most of the links were stated as being discovered in “February”, despite being actually shown in the Webmasters tools several months ago.

*Certain pages on this site appear to have got nuked by Google. :p

Sloppy PageRank update?

Posted by multippt

Seems like Google had it all half done, probably one of the very few times you get to see Google make a few mistakes here and there. The last known change in PageRank was in 10th January 2008. I was hoping this update to continue, but it stopped right there - exactly half-way through. Then again, this whole “update” may not be the real update yet; it might be a prelude to the major one.

Hit-and-miss

The update is like a barrel of machine gun rounds. Not all your pages get hit by it. If you are lucky, your main page gets updated, if not, then you’ll see newer PageRank on your least expected pages. It’s all totally random. So, it’s not too surprising to see higher PageRanks in internal pages compared to the main page, as much as a difference of 4. About 10% of pages get hit, so you have a few pages with a new PageRank, while most of your other ones keep the same PageRank (or have none).

As the new PageRank takes values from links, Google only update pages with an updated “link” report (i.e. via the not-so-reliable “link:” command). The update in the link command is also yet another hit-and-miss, except that more pages experience updates in the links displayed.

Nuked PageRanks

Google hasn’t stopped with the penalties. Certain sites are getting further penalized, notably blogs dealing with paid reviews. Strangely, Search Engine Roundtable is penalized as well (and to think that the official Google blog is actually linking to the site in its blogroll). Technorati is another example with its PageRank nuked off; no it’s not just a normal penalty, Technorati now no longer has any PageRank (not even PR0 for the main page), even internal pages are not spared from Google’s wraith, or maybe all that could be a mistake on Google’s part (ah, brings backs memories when Google accidentally penalized its own Youtube).

The average site gets Google praise

Well, that’s for high-profile pages. Fortunately, small sites with established PageRanks get to benefit from this small update. Unfortunately, small and new sites which do not get established PageRanks do not get the same kind treatment. Remember hit-and-miss? Seems like Google is more prone to “missing” your main page, and prefers to hit your inside pages instead.

Covering up mistakes?

Toolbar pagerank is no longer telling the truth. Instead, let’s now refer to something more accurate, Google directory. For some strange reason, Google did not reflect penalties in the directory, so the directory should contain the most accurate values. Technorati for example, is supposed to have probably PR7. Engadget and Gizmodo is supposed to have approximately the same PageRank as well.

Though, this sort of method for checking PageRank works only on sites who have been listed with the Dmoz directory. While Dmoz is supposingly “open”, it seems near impossible to get entered into Dmoz, and even if you managed to make the cut, delays will come. In addition, the PageRank shown is probably newer than the ones dished out in this update.

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Don’t forget that PageRank is just a number.

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).