The Google PageRank Shuffle
You knew it was coming, and this week it arrived: Google has re-aligned its PageRank display (you know, the toolbar one that we webmasters live and breathe by).
I knew this site had been boosted a lot of late, as the World’s Greatest Blog is performing extremely well in SERPs, but I have been particularly pleased with the PageRank of a number of other sites that 24HourTrading have put out over the past few months.
Of course, true PageRank changes all the time, and the toolbar is just an indicator, but this recent change (all upwards movements) seems to echo our thoughts that Google would appreciate quality content.
There have been many utterings of late in a few webmaster fora about how “some crappy site with hardly any backlinks is outperforming our great website with hundreds of backlinks” - so it would seem that backlinks aren’t everything. I’m happy with this. Perhaps now we can rid the world of fruitless attempts to get reciprocal links, people paying for PageRank and everything else that stemmed from an over-reliance on backlinks.
Good SEO really is quite simple, if you ask me, and any webmaster would do well to follow these simple rules:
- Produce quality content based around a key “theme” (i.e. not just a keyword, or key phrase);
- Have distinct pages for distinct ideas (or themes)
- Use heading tags, bold text, alt text and - above ALL else - use a key phrase in the URL through which the page is reached: if using WordPress, get your permalinks sorted to achieve this, e.g. www.yoursite.com/your-intended-key-phrase/;
- Try to get into DMOZ (more on this below!).
If you follow the above, and produce your own unique content, you’ll do well in search in the future. Don’t worry about getting links at all - that is, don’t try to force the issue by using link farms, crappy directories, buying links, or through reciprocal linking. Google does not seem to like this practice.
We’ve all tried it. I have myself. However, I gave up entirely, as it was boring me trying to get others to link to me: I’d rather be working on a good article.
Those good articles seem to work.
In less than a year since its inception, this very blog has now got a Google PageRank of 5 on the homepage, and a few individual posts. I have been quoted by a few major league websites; have been interviewed four times by the traditional press; appeared on Irish Radio talking about social networking (in a rather surreal exchange which took place while I was living in Sydney, Australia!); and have launched no fewer than eight new websites for my own, and third party companies, all of which have achieved top SERPs in under a couple of months. Just by following the above.
Content is king.
It doesn’t matter how many times I repeat this, it seems that almost everyone else is still banging away at flawed practices: Spamming MySpace; spammy keyword and description meta-tags; keyword stuffing; content scraping; etc etc etc. Forget that, it is short-term strategy. Next time Google shifts its algo you’ll find your website dumped.
Getting into DMOZ
With my first couple of websites, back in the olden days, I really struggled to get them into DMOZ. I wondered whether it was even possible at all, however, more recently, I have got a good number added there (except this site, for which there really is no relevant category, as I meander around from subject to subject, and really do just use it as a personal sounding board). Here is what worked for me:
- Make a great website;
- Be sure your site is unique (this is not as hard as it sounds, really, it can be comprised of elements that are not unique ideas per se, though the site as a whole should be a one-off: unique in it’s particular niche);
- Don’t overload with adsense, paid advertising, or stuff like that for the first few months, but if you are selling something, you should be the only website selling that particualr range of products to stand a chance.
- Find the most relevant category - or, if there are two that seem to fit the bill,pick the one which has an active editor (you can find this at the bottom of the screen)
- Write a good submission, and be honest - don’t say “The Best”, just tell people what it is, in the shortest possible complete sentence.
- After submitting, just forget you ever did it, and wait. Sooner or later you’ll realise your site is in DMOZ. Or it won’t be. Either way, don’t fret about it.
DMOZ is well respected by Google, so it is a great place to start for gaining PageRank early on. One word of caution, though, is do not submit too early - wait until your site is complete, or at least complete enough for the DMOZ editors to realise what it is all about, and what quality they can expect in future. These steps have worked for me (but not on every site) gambling related websites or shopping comparison sites will have a real struggle getting into DMOZ. Also, if you use any sort of affiliate links, I would expect never to make it in either.
Google’s PageRank Shuffle Causes Mass Hysteria
It really grates at me how a lot of webmasters seem to be missing the point when it comes to SEO and SERPs. They will say things about how they are sick of other “rubbish” sites overtaking them, even - shock horror - sites which aren’t selling anything. At the end of the day, Google has to consider one thing: the relevance of a website to the person searching.
Just before the new PageRank went live (in the last week or so) a lot of previously highly ranking sites (who had been untouched for an age) found they were being usurped by other websites (which had little or no visible PageRank). This really got to them. How dare they! How very dare they! Well, I’ll tell you. It just might be that their site is better than yours for that sector: it is more relevant to those performing searches - particularly as your (previously well performing) site had not been altered for a number of months or, in some instances, years.
Instead of getting all irate about the lack of quality in the sites which have overtaken you, and writing huge posts in webmaster fora about this very problem, perhaps you should be adding more content to your website. Then - just a thought - you may find your site performs even better than before.
Never rest on your laurels! Just because you’re number one today, does not mean a website won’t come along tomorrow with a whole host of better content, which is better written, and more relevant to your key phrases than you are.
Always improve your site, and you’ll always improve your search engine ranking. It’s that simple.
Check out the following for working examples:
Very good explanation on the Google PR update. one of my site also lost PR in this update. It was 6 to 4.