Google PR

[altyfc]

Hi all

Just interested to know here how much attention we all pay to Google and, in particular, Google PR (aka PageRank). Personally, I surf the web with the Google toolbar installed and usually take note of the supposed popularity of the page that I'm on. However, I'm equally aware that PR could be described as a marketing coup for Google. You only have to look at some of the discussions on SEO to find how pre-occupied people can become about it. A high Google PR doesn't necessarily equal a successful business... do we sometimes lose sight of where focus should be, do you think?

Aaron

[becki]

what does a high Google PR mean and where do you find it?

[Brian Turner]

Originally Posted by becki

what does a high Google PR mean and where do you find it?

To download the Google Toobar, go to:

http://toolbar.google.com

There's a little bar in the middle that measure PR with a green fill - a mouse over will highlight a score from 1-10.

Itss basically a measure of link popularity. As Google is effectively (or was effectively - cf Austin!!) a links-based search engine, it means that the link popularity of a page can be somewhat loosely associated with its rankings and site traffic.

For example, a page that ranks around 1 on the Google Toolbar would not normally be expected to rank highly - or get as much traffic - as an equivalent page with a higher PR, such as PR6, for example.

Therefore lots of webmasters will obsess with building their PR, as a basic guide to how well they must be helping improve their rankings in the search engines, as well as site traffic from those searches.

[Brian Turner]

Originally Posted by altyfc

A high Google PR doesn't necessarily equal a successful business... do we sometimes lose sight of where focus should be, do you think?

Absolutely right - anchor text has been a particualarly powerful tool for webmasters.

However, PR should not indeed come at the expense of other features.

For my new sites, my first task has been to increase their PR and anchor text rankings by linking extensively from other sites.

However, I've realise while surfing how poor my actual copytext is on my business site, www.britecorp.co.uk - it just doesn't tell a potential customer how they can directly benefit (ie, increased sales with SEO).

So now that I've finished building up backlinks, directory listings, and anchor text issues, I'll get on with looking twice at my wording, and ensure that I have a far stronger marketing delivery to work with.