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    Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

    At Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization we know that knowledge is power. That's the reason we started this SEO blog. We know that the better informed our visitors are, the better the decisions they will make for their websites and their online businesses. We hope you enjoy your stay and find the SEO news contained within this blog useful.

    October 23, 2007

    PageRank Isn’t The Question – But Here’s Some

    Earlier today I published a post titled “PageRank Isn’t The Questions; Page Rank Is“. I got posted on Sphinn and ended up causing a bit of an issue with the user Halfdeck. His comments were too difficult to respond to in the chat area of Sphinn and so I will reply here. Below you will find his comments and my replies:

    “So we’ll focus on the real business and it’s very clear that what we’re really after is rankings, not PageRank. Once upon a time PageRank had a strong influence on rankings – that is not the case anymore.”

    This article is out of date. If it was written last year maybe it would have held some validity.

    Last year I would have written that PageRank had more value. I don’t quite get what you’re saying as PageRank has, if anything, been declining in importance over time but to me it sounds as though you’re saying that if I had said it was losing value last year I would have been right but to say it this year is inaccurate. PageRank certainly hasn’t increased in importance over the past year.

    While I agree that business owners would do better to think in terms of marketing, traffic, and brand awareness instead of bulk buying high TBPR links with keyword stuffed anchor text, PageRank is and will always be to Google what gravity is to you and me.

    Then explain this: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe;=off≷=us&q;=seo&btnG;=Search

    At the time of this posting there are PageRank 3′s beating out PageRank 7′s.

    If one reads the entire post they’ll note that I do say PageRank is a factor, just one of hundreds not “the factor” as it once was and certainly not so important as to stand out as much as it does.

    Authority, or high total domain PageRank (e.g. Wikipedia, with a slew of TBPR 5 deep pages), by itself may not reward you with any ranking boost, despite popular myth that authority is a dominant ranking factor.

    Really? Then why does Wikipedia (PR7 page) rank #1 and SEOMoz (PR7 page) rank #10 for “seo”?

    But who would argue against the fact that a site that has 100,000 pages in the main index doesn’t have a huge advantage over a site with 10 pages in the main index, simply because that’s 100,000 pages of real estate with internal anchor text that you can use to nail highly competitive rankings?

    Deep index penetration is one of the most efficient, powerful SEO tactics. And what is the gatekeeper that keeps unpopular sites from getting 100,000 pages in the main index?

    PageRank.

    What? I have no idea what this means. A site with a PageRank 2 can have 100,000 pages in the index if the owners or contributers are very very busy people. Generally a site isn’t going to get to 100,000 pages until it’s been around for a long time and by then, it likely has lots of links which will undoubtedly lead to a higher PageRank. I think you put the cart in front of the horse on that one.

    Should you chase after PageRank? No. But if you are trying to make the case that gravity – which you aren’t conscious of – has no effect on your life then you’re making an indefensible claim. Sure, you don’t need to think about gravity to be able to drive a car to work. But without gravity, how will you manage to climb into your car?

    Well I suppose that’s it then. I suppose it’s time to call up Rand Fishkin, Danny Sullivan, Neil Patel, Jill Whalen and all the other SEO’s who contributed to SEOmoz’s “Google Search Engine Ranking Factors” list and let them know that their work was for naught. PageRank is the gravity that holds sites in the rangs (despite that fact that over all the top SEO’s they averaged it at 2.4 out of 5 importance).

    BTW, Toolbar PageRank (TBPR) is NOT PageRank.

    And here we agree. As I wrote, the lack of updating of Google’s toolbar PageRank is causing many of the questions from people who have been doing link building recently but haven’t noticed any increase in ages.

    You bring up a good point I failed to include which was a note:

    Google is constantly updating their internal PageRank, they only push it to the toolbar periodically but internally they’re using up-to-date values constantly.

    “If you had a thermometer that never moved”

    Yes bwelford, but the green bar does move. If it doesn’t move for certain pages, you can either assume that the toolbar isn’t being updated as it should be or you can assume that the page isn’t important enough to have an up-to-date green bar. As you might have noticed, popular sites tend to have their toolbar updates before anyone else.

    Haven’t noticed much of that anywhere with the exception of some sites losing PageRank a couple weeks back and that was about it. Maybe you have a different toolbar than the rest of us. ;)

    As much tongue-in-cheek as I may have put across in this post I would sincerely like to thank Halfdesk for the feedback. He forced me to clarify and to include points previously missed. And also important to note, SEO – while based on math – is not an exact science and won’t be until someone over at Google answers my emails and finally gives me the algo. ;) It’s the exchange of ideas that keeps us all learning and while I may disagree, Halfdeck brings up some decent arguments that I’m glad were brought up so my readers can remember to analyze this debate for themselves.

    I didn’t become and SEO by copying others, I learned by reading, testing, and judging what others said and then using my own brain to figure out what made sense. I recommend the same for others.

    SEO news blog post by @ 10:48 pm

    Categories: Uncategorized
    Tags: , , —

     

    PageRank Isn’t The Question; Page Rank Is.

    I’m going to write this post in hopes that the influx of people who seem to be calling us lately asking about PageRank will read it. I’m not convinced that this is the case however it’s worth a try. A trend I’ve noticed as an SEO is that questions tend to come in waves. Today everybody wants to know (or there’s mass confusion on) links and PageRank (or more specifically, why they don’t have a higher PageRank). And so this post is born. If nothing else, it’ll offer me a link to point those people to down the road rather than explaining AGAIN why their website doesn’t have a higher PageRank and why this isn’t really the question they should be asking themselves.

    So let’s start from the beginning, why are we all chasing rankings (and since rankings predate PageRank – this is the beginning)? We chase rankings so that we can get traffic. Why do we want traffic? So we can get business. So let’s take a look at what the questions we should be asking ourselves are regarding PageRank, the factors being – business, traffic, rankings and PageRank. Lets see if we can figure out which of the factors are unimportant knowing that the end goal is business. In this equation we will make the logical assumption that if you increase the relevant traffic to your website, you’ll increase your business. Thus, for our purposes here: traffic = business.

    1. If you have a high PageRank but low rankings will you have an increase in traffic/business?
    2. If you have a low PageRank but high rankings will you have an increase in traffic/business?

    If you answered yes to number one then perhaps you need to visit more SEO blogs and forums to get a better understanding of how Internet Marketing works. If you answered yes to number two but no to number one you get the point – PageRank is irrelevant.

    Now, there will be a couple of you out there who will have read some statistics regarding people using a high PageRank as a yardstick to measuring the authority or trustability of a website. Putting things in perspective however we can all agree that this is a small percentage of the population (do you?) and if this trust is what you’re looking for you’ll find it much easier and cheaper (time is money) to attain by adding HackerSafe to your site and getting the roughly 14% conversion increase you can get by going that route.

    So we’ll focus on the real business and it’s very clear that what we’re really after is rankings, not PageRank. Once upon a time PageRank had a strong influence on rankings – that is not the case anymore. It is certainly a factor, one among a hundred. Certainly not something worth all the hoop-la.

    But thus far I don’t think I’ve really answered the question I’ve set out to – so let’s do that now. Really there are two common questions I seem to get asked frequently about PageRank and they are:

    Why isn’t my PageRank higher?
    The answer here depends on the site of course however the most common reasons are:

    • The links you’re building are horrible – sorry but it’s true. If you come to me with an acne treatment site with a low PageRank and ask why, please make sure you haven’t done mass recip link building with low PageRank car insurance sites (or worse), or
    • Google’s lack of PageRank updating is the “problem”. I’ve seen a number or sites that actually have some good link building tactics in place but have a low PageRank. When I ask when the link building started I’ll generally get the reply that it’s been in the last 6 months or so. While there have been some hiccups in the PageRank displayed in the tool bar we haven’t seen a real update since April. These are generally the funniest people to deal with and here’s why. The conversation usually takes the following turn:
      “Oh, that’s why my PageRank is still a 2 (or 1 or whatever). I was wondering as I’m sitting at #2 for my phrase.” Which occasionally makes me want to forget I’m speaking with a prospective client and cry out “THEN WHO CARES WHAT YOUR PAGERANK IS !!??!!“

    Which is really what this blog post (or is it a blog rant?) is about. The second question I get asked a lot is:

    So what are you going to do to increase my PageRank?
    The truth of the matter is, nothing. I’m not specifically interested in your PageRank. If you look at our guarantee page you won’t see a “We guarantee to get you a PageRank of x over 6 months.” We run ranking reports, not PageRank reports.

    Now, we have to do a lot of link building and our primary focus is to get good relevant links so in the end, the PageRank of the sites we work on will go up however that’s not really the point. PageRank doesn’t pay the bills (unless you’re selling links). Your page’s rank – now that does. :)

    So thank you all for listening to my rant. I do hope that it has answered some questions and please accept my thanks … you’ve been a good counselor. ;)

    And Matt (Cutts) if you’re reading this PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE just help us get rid of the bloody green bar. paid links wouldn’t be a problem for you anymore (or certainly less of one) and I wouldn’t have to answer these questions anymore and could just be left to focus on relevancy. :)

    SEO news blog post by @ 1:18 pm

    Categories: Uncategorized
    Tags: , , —

     

    January 25, 2007

    Google Update & BotNets

    Let’s begin our post here with an update on Google PageRank. There is an update underway. Now, before any of you panic that your PR has just dropped, take a peek at your competitors.

    During the last toolbar update I noticed a TON of sites making huge gains. While I’m always pleased to see my clients jump up a couple PR points, in the last update a lot of it didn’t make sense. I had clients I would have predicted to jump to a PR4 from the 3 they were at but when they jumped straight to PR5, well it didn’t make sense. At lost the current update hits and the client I’m thinking of dropped to a PR4 – right where they should be with my understanding of the way the world works. :)

    If you noticed drops in your PageRank value it may well be due to the current corrections going on. Think back a few months, were you celebrating a little too hard with a huge jump? Now it’s time for sobriety. :)

    And BotNets …

    There’s a great article that appears to support my 2007 prediction on Webmaster Radio regarding Google developing a diskless computer (or at least working with manufacturers to do so). Well in an article on the BBC website titled, Criminals ‘may overwhelm the web’, the first signs of it are appearing though you need to read between the lines.

    Vint Cerf, Google employee and one of the developers of the TCP/IP protocol (if you don’t know what TCP/IP is, it’s the “language” that the web and most networks function on) referred to the proliferation of botnets as a pandemic and noted the following:

    “Of the 600 million computers currently on the Internet, between 100 and 150 million were already part of these botnets.”

    That paints a pretty bleak picture. How can we combat this pandemic? Is there even a solution?
    Fortunately Michael Dell (founder of Dell computers) offered the following:

    “The future might bring “disposable virtual PCs”, accessed through the Internet, that would minimise the threat of a persistent virus infection.”

    My prediction for 2007 (or perhaps 2008 but that we would at least hear confirmation this year) was that Google would develop a cheap home system that would connect to a network and network storage rather than a hard drive. Everything would happen online. It appears that’s the “solution”.

    Am I the only one that finds it an odd coincidence that Google points out the significant threats that are present (and make no mistake, they are threats) and that Dell bring forth the solution of a dummy machine that is centrally administered and thus, more easily secured and managed? Oh, and need I remind you that in June of 2006 Dell and Google signed a distribution deal?

    Hmmmmmmmmm. Methinks my predictions for 2007 might be in the makings. :)

    With all this said, botnets are a HUGE security and web issue. While I like to point out that Google and Dell and likely positioning themselves for the launch of this new computer system that does not make the issue any less real. There is a quote, “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.” Just because major corporations may take advantage and seek gains from this issue doesn’t mean it’s not real and that it doesn’t threaten the very nature and function of the Internet. The article is worth reading and, if you have the time, researching. You can read the article on the BBC website here. You can also listen to Jim Hedger and I speak with Ryan Sherstobitoff from Panda Technology on just this subject on Webmaster Radio here (this is from December 21st). (Note: hyperlink to WMR removed as the page is no longer there)

    SEO news blog post by @ 6:04 pm

    Categories: Uncategorized
    Tags: , , , , —

     

    Google Update & BotNets

    Let’s begin our post here with an update on Google PageRank. There is an update underway. Now, before any of you panic that your PR has just dropped, take a peek at your competitors.

    During the last toolbar update I noticed a TON of sites making huge gains. While I’m always pleased to see my clients jump up a couple PR points, in the last update a lot of it didn’t make sense. I had clients I would have predicted to jump to a PR4 from the 3 they were at but when they jumped straight to PR5, well it didn’t make sense. At lost the current update hits and the client I’m thinking of dropped to a PR4 – right where they should be with my understanding of the way the world works. :)

    If you noticed drops in your PageRank value it may well be due to the current corrections going on. Think back a few months, were you celebrating a little too hard with a huge jump? Now it’s time for sobriety. :)

    And BotNets …

    There’s a great article that appears to support my 2007 prediction on Webmaster Radio regarding Google developing a diskless computer (or at least working with manufacturers to do so). Well in an article on the BBC website titled, Criminals ‘may overwhelm the web’, the first signs of it are appearing though you need to read between the lines.

    Vint Cerf, Google employee and one of the developers of the TCP/IP protocol (if you don’t know what TCP/IP is, it’s the “language” that the web and most networks function on) referred to the proliferation of botnets as a pandemic and noted the following:

    “Of the 600 million computers currently on the Internet, between 100 and 150 million were already part of these botnets.”

    That paints a pretty bleak picture. How can we combat this pandemic? Is there even a solution?
    Fortunately Michael Dell (founder of Dell computers) offered the following:

    “The future might bring “disposable virtual PCs”, accessed through the Internet, that would minimise the threat of a persistent virus infection.”

    My prediction for 2007 (or perhaps 2008 but that we would at least hear confirmation this year) was that Google would develop a cheap home system that would connect to a network and network storage rather than a hard drive. Everything would happen online. It appears that’s the “solution”.

    Am I the only one that finds it an odd coincidence that Google points out the significant threats that are present (and make no mistake, they are threats) and that Dell bring forth the solution of a dummy machine that is centrally administered and thus, more easily secured and managed? Oh, and need I remind you that in June of 2006 Dell and Google signed a distribution deal?

    Hmmmmmmmmm. Methinks my predictions for 2007 might be in the makings. :)

    With all this said, botnets are a HUGE security and web issue. While I like to point out that Google and Dell and likely positioning themselves for the launch of this new computer system that does not make the issue any less real. There is a quote, “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.” Just because major corporations may take advantage and seek gains from this issue doesn’t mean it’s not real and that it doesn’t threaten the very nature and function of the Internet. The article is worth reading and, if you have the time, researching. You can read the article on the BBC website here. You can also listen to Jim Hedger and I speak with Ryan Sherstobitoff from Panda Technology on just this subject on Webmaster Radio here (this is from December 21st). (Note: hyperlink to WMR removed as the page is no longer there)

    SEO news blog post by @ 6:04 pm

    Categories: Uncategorized
    Tags: , , , , —

     

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