True or False, Is Google PageRank (PR) Dead?

Achieving a high Google PageRank has been one of the prime aims of Internet marketers since it was first introduced. The PageRank (or PR) of any website is decided by a complex algorithm used by Google to show the 'perceived value' of a website. This then dictates, in part, where a site appears in the search results or SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), and how much traffic it receives.

However, it can be manipulated, in several ways, which means that, although a site may have a high PR (Google for instance has a maximum PageRank of 10), it may not be relevant, meaningful or valuable at all.

In fact, some search engine marketers have dedicated much time to working out how to get high page rank through 'black hat' techniques, and this has undermined somewhat the value of PR in the search engine marketing world.

For instance, if your website or blog gets a link from a site with a high pagerank (4 or above) this is counted by Google to be a 'vote' for the importance of that site. This then affects the Page Rank of the site receiving the vote, and helps to drive more traffic. BUT, it was discovered that you could spoof a PageRank by redirecting a URL to a higher PR website. When Google does its PageRank update, the site with the lower PR gains the higher rank of the site it was redirected to.

This meant that sites with high PRs were not necessarily great sites at all, and this has caused a loss of confidence in Page Rank.

However, whether we like it or not, Google still conducts the majority of searches, and therefore drives the most traffic, and until Google stop using the PageRank to dictate where a website occurs in the search engine index, it is likely to be here to stay.

Spunky Jones.

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