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Google PageRank Update Analysis 
By Dave Davies (c) 2005

For those of you not yet aware, Google is currently updating
the PageRank they are displaying in their toolbar. Each update
causes a stir among the SEO community and webmasters trying to
get their websites to the top of the Google Rankings.

What Is PageRank?
Without getting into too much detail, PageRank is essentially
a score out of ten as to the "value" of your site in comparison
to other websites on the Internet. It is based on two primary
factors; the number of links you have pointing to your website
and the value of the links pointing to your website. The value
is calculated based on the PageRank of the page linking to you
and debatably the relevancy of the page linking to you (there
is no hard evidence to back up the relevancy factor in regards
to PageRank that I have seen, however it definitely is a factor
in your overall ranking).

If you are interested in more information on PageRank you would
do well to visit the many forums and articles on the topic and
also visit Google's own description on their website at
http://www.google.com/technology/ where they give a brief
description of the technology.

What's New?
The most current PageRank update will undoubtedly cause a larger
stir than usual in that many sites have shown drops in their
visible PageRank while at the same time showing significant
increases in their backlinks. This fact reveals that one of
three things has occurred in this latest update:

   1. Google has raised the bar on PageRank, making it more
      difficult to attain a high level, or
   2. The way they are displaying their backlinks has changed, or
   3. The way they calculate the value of an incoming link has
      changed.

Any of these are possible and has been noted in the past as
something they are willing to do. Additionally, it is possible
for all to occur at the same time.

As we don't like to use clients as examples, I will use the
Beanstalk site, backlink counts, and PageRank changes as the
meter by which the following conclusions are drawn, however this
information was attained through looking at a number of client
websites and their competitors.

Google Raising The Bar To Lower Yours
In the past few PageRank updates it has become quite apparent
that Google is continuously raising the bar on PageRank. In
their defense, with all of the reciprocal link building, link
renting, etc. going on this was a natural reaction to the
growing number of high PageRank sites that attained those ranks
simply by building or buying hundreds and thousands of links.

There is no doubt that this is a factor in the changes in this
current update. If your site has maintained it's PageRank, and
the PageRanks of your second-level pages, then you have done
well in holding steady and, if your competitors have not been
as diligent their positions will slip.

New Backlink Calculations
I mention this one only to bring to light that it is a
possibility for your future consideration during other updates.
The Beanstalk website went from 750 shown backlinks on Google to
864. It should be noted that Google does not show all backlinks
(if you want a more accurate backlink count go to Yahoo! and
enter "link:http://www.yourdomain.com" (don't forget the
http://)).

When the Beanstalk site showed 750 backlinks on Google we were
showing around 12,000 on Yahoo! (about 6.5% showing on Google).
The Beanstalk site is now showing 864 on Google and 15,500 on
Yahoo! (about 5.6%). If anything then, Google is showing less
links than before which negates the possibility that a website's
PageRank is dropping due to a decrease in links but being hidden
by an increased number being displayed.

In short, while the backlinks Google chooses to display has
certainly changed over time, it does not appear to be a major
factor in this update. If you see an increase in your sites
backlink counts during this update, you undoubtedly have an
increased number of links.

The Value Of Links
Separate from the number of links you have is their value.
This appears to be an area of significant change in this update.
Areas that appear to have reduced value in regards to affecting
PageRank are:

   1. Multiple links from the same site or run-of-site links
      Intelligent and relevant reciprocal links do not seem
      to have been penalized, probably due to the increased
      relevancy factor. If you reduce the value of irrelevant
      links and raise the value of relevant ones, then there
      is no need to penalize reciprocal links as, done
      incorrectly, they will penalize themselves.

   2. Links with text around them that indicate they are
      purchased, such as "Partners", "Advertising", etc.
      Google has and is actively trying to reduce the value
      of paid links. This appears to have been moderately
      successful where there is clear indication that the
      link is paid for.

   3. Links from sites that hold little relevancy (this factor
      is based on educated speculation)
      The relevancy factor appears to have become more
      important. Links from sites with content related to yours
      are showing positive results while sites with larger
      numbers of less relevant links are showing drops in
      PageRank.

What Does This Mean?
For those of you who have been proactive in your link building,
and focused on relevant sites using the Google Directory,
searches or a tool like PR Prowler it means, "stay the course".
Those of you who have been building or buying links based only
on PageRank with little concern for their location, or how they
are presented - you will need to adjust your link building
efforts accordingly.

What Do I Do - My PageRank Dropped ?!!?
The first thing not to do is panic. Take a deep breath,
PageRank is one factor of dozens that Google uses to determine
the ranking of your page, it is not the only thing. Now, visit
your main competitors' sites - there's a good chance you'll see
that they too dropped PageRank. The plus side to these kinds of
updates is that they're universal. It's not as if Google has it
in for you specifically and so when they do an update, the
positive and negative impact is felt by all.

Now, if you've noticed that everyone around you has stayed the
same or increased in PageRank try to remember this, there's
nothing you can do about where you're currently positioned in
regards to PageRank and it will probably be another 3 months
before Google updates the public PageRank again so ... start
building some good quality (high relevancy, solid PageRank)
links. Work towards an increase in the next update.

Panicking now won't help, intelligent reaction will.

What Happens Now?
Traditionally the search engine results will begin to fluctuate
based on the new visible PageRank 3 to 7 days after they are
visible. This does not have to be the case as Google's had these
numbers all along but its worked this way in the majority of
cases in recent history. So monitor your search engine positions
over the next week or two and watch for changes. Try to hold
back on making major changes to your site during this time as
often the final positions will differ from those that can be
viewed during the shuffling. In a couple weeks time evaluate
where you stand and tweak your site as necessary but don't spend
too much time on that ... you have a solid link building effort
to undertake.

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Dave Davies is the owner of Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning
(http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/). He has been optimizing and
ranking websites for over three years and has a solid history
of success. Dave is available to answer any questions that you
may have about your website and how to get it into the top
positions on the major search engines.
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