PageRank vs traffic volume and content quality: a topic that’s been done to death; we all know that theoretically one should try to build traffic and quality content and not PageRank.
Still, the truth is that this rule seems to be more of a theoretical approach, and having a PR of 0 still seems to be a dreadful condition one should hide from the eyes of the world.
Sure, I do suffer from the sour grapes syndrome just now; I’ve had no dramas about not having a PR of 0 (for a blog that’s 3 months old that really should not be a point of concern). It would be great to have a high page rank and I’m sure I’ll get there in a while.
But for the time being it seems I should just crawl away and die and not embarrass the world with such a lowly PR.
PageRank based DoFollow directories
There are many DoFollow lists; the point of them is to encourage people to comment on blogs that don’t enforce the nofollow on their outbound links.
But this one was a bit different: all the blogs listed were of PR 2 or higher. And the author kindly requested any owner of a PR2 or higher blog to email him the URL. The list comprised of some 20 blogs, most of them in the tech or SEO business.
And most interestingly, all the links to these blogs were nofollowed “for SEO purposes”.
So I stop and wonder: is it more worthwhile getting a link from an SEO blog with a PR of 3 or from five blogs with a small or no PR but an active audience and within the same industry as you?
I personally pick the latter: I’d rather belong in a cluster of similar blogs, that can refer qualified traffic to my site than comment aimlessly on blogs that have nothing to do with me.
Topic based DoFollow directories
Now there is a point that needs mentioning here: most of the people out there who are so concerned about page rank will be in the SEO business; and as such they WOULD be in their own cluster.
But for a graphic design blog, or a home improvement one, or a parenting one, as I’ve seen so many of, and of such great quality, this strategy doesn’t make any sense.
So I advocate the creation of topic-based directories of blog that do follow regardless of their page rank. The only criteria should be DoFollow and quality of content and/or traffic.
If anyone knows of such directories, do post a link in the comments section below. I think we need to do more to promote them.
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September 8th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Screw it. Just get links. Sure, it would be great if it were in your field, or high PR but you can’t be choosy. Even if it doesn’t pass “link juice” you’re creating another avenue of paths for Google to find your blog.
And don’t worry about follow or no follow. Sometimes, the Googlebots miss and I’ve gotten links from high authority blogs.
BTW, why are you not using article titles as permalinks instead of page numbers? Theoretically, they say it’s better for SEO.
PR’s last blog post: Card Magic Tricks site: http://prcounter.com
September 8th, 2008 at 2:45 am
The permalinks, oh yeah. They are a scar due to my ex hosting provider, who refused to let me access the .htaccess file.
And now that I moved to a new one I need to find the time to properly 301 the old ones to a new perma structure. And somehow I never find the time.
I know, I know, I should do it before I get even more URLs to redirect…
September 8th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I’m not sure I quite follow but do you not need to just put /%postname%/ under Settings/Permalinks/Custom Structure field?
In any case, regarding whether or not to get niche links or links from everywhere, I think the graphic designer David Airey got huge publicity from the contest he held and also for being hacked. Obviously the links he got were not from his niche. Quantity trumps quality I think. Other purists will tell you different but I think every bit helps…
PR’s last blog post: Card Magic Tricks site: http://prcounter.com
September 8th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Re permalinks: it’s easy to change the permalink structure, but in doing so any link pointing to the site, e.g. to http://limeshot.com/?p=59 would now land on a 404 - Page not found. Since the page URL would now be something like limeshot.com/2008/09/05/i-have-a-page-rank-of-0.html.
So I would ruin all my link building work, targeted or otherwise. In order to maintain the traffic and link juice coming to those old URLs I would have to do a permanent redirect for each of them, using 301s in the .htaccess file. Which is not a lot of work, but still.
Re link: I have seen and Australian mortgage provider shooting to position 1 on “home loans” after having bought a domain that used to be an Australian search engine mentioned on hundreds of university websites etc. So yeah, I know you’re right, but I’m keeping my faith in the fact that Google will fine tune the algo eventually.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
You have a beautiful site and good content so you’re probably getting links. Your PR is going to go up during the next update.
I found you through SEOmoz, and as you might know - once you get 100 moz points they remove the nofollow attribute and that can help a lot.
There is some really great stuff here. I really like your style - very rich art elements with a lot of high production value.
Almost makes me wish I had the budget to do some designs/redesigns for some of my websites.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Thanks! That must be the nicest comment ever!
I suppose I am getting links, and I’ve a few more freebies to post so that should help; but I’m still irked by the bigotry one finds online sometimes.
Anyways, I did a quick browse of your articles on SEOMoz - loved Finding your niche. I suppose this is how I ditched the corporate and went into freelancing, although I hadn’t come across your framework.
September 11th, 2008 at 4:31 am
I agree with vingold. You’re site is clean and well-laid out, just what I’d expect from a graphic designer.
I think people get so caught up trying build a site or blog that is google friendly that they forget to make it user friendly, which you have not. That’s probably why you have several insightful comments while a nofollow blog with a PR of 3 has no comments. Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of blogging?
September 11th, 2008 at 10:46 am
I’ve never been one for good PR.. Google always hated me though I love them. :*( Sigh.
Still, I haven’t bothered with looking at it in such a long time that I no longer know how to check and/or up my page ranking. Hmm, if only everyone was like that, no?
September 11th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Look, I’m not kissing ass to get a link but it’s obvious you have skills. I dropped by, saw an attractive blog and a topic that I could actually comment on intelligently - and a webmaster who isn’t snooty about keyword names.
PR is actually quite easy to get. I have commented on posts that have a paragraph worth of text but there was enough content generated by the comments to keep the bots coming. Obviously you get weird names associated with the comments but it’s a fair trade.
LA Law’s last blog post: Preparing to Meet Your Los Angeles Divorce Lawyer site: http://islalaw.com
September 26th, 2008 at 3:01 am
My pagerank actually is 0 but I’m not worried about cause I’m seeing the results from my work in my blog independent my pagerank is null. The visits are growing…just good stats..go to hell PR
Michael’s last blog post: College (2008) em AVI DVDRip Legendado site: http://henriqueloo.blogspot.com
October 4th, 2008 at 5:07 am
I’d not lose a wink of sleep about PR. I guess when I was newer to the ‘net, it was a bit of an ego boost to see it increase, but I can tell you that its effect on your bottom line is negligible (mine anyway).
Like the others have said, you’ve got a great site, so keep the good work up. The PR will come, and after initial joy, you’ll get over it in a hurry!
October 7th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Page rank does mean something to advertisers and can mean quite a bit when you are competing for uber competitive terms. All things being equal, a PR5 site will beat a PR0 site every time for the same set of keywords.
The idea is to not get caught up in competitive keywords unless you have big budget and lots of manpower.
Being keyword aware is important but sticking within solid a niche and generating content is probably the biggest factor in getting traffic and links back to you.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:18 am
Hi Lisa
Thanks for stopping by; funny enough, the PageRank did go up - it actually went up to 3 and 4 for some of the internal pages and 2 for the main domain. And yes, almost at the same time my rankings went through the roof for some pretty competitive keywords.
But I would hesitate to attribute that to the PR update - I would rather think it’s due to the fact that I managed to clean up the URL structure and 301 all the old permalinks to more search friendly ones. With the disadvantage that the shiny new PR hasn’t propagated yet to the new URLs yet and probably won’t until the next toolbar PR update.
The dramas we go through for rankings
October 23rd, 2008 at 4:01 pm
The trust is that PR is only a representation of your PAST performance. I have had page ranks drop and increase up to 4 points at a time. It’s nothing you should really worry yourself with because it only updates a few times a year and, as I said, it only shows what your ranking WAS last time it came around. It’s really useless if you ask me.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:21 am
true. my pr bumped up recently from n/a to 3, but i wasn’t at all happy because for most of the past few weeks, i’ve been doing poorly on google serps. it’s all about the traffic, i feel. most everything else is a far off second.
kouji´s last blog post: autumn haiku poem site: [site]
November 1st, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I’m new to blogging and am still learning about PR. I blog for fun, so it will be interesting to see what my PR turns out to be the next time the google folks do their thing that changes the ranks. Just be yourself and have fun!
Jerry´s last blog post: Struggling economy site: [site]
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:33 am
Good on you for not really caring about your PR. People place way too much emphasis on this small little green bar and it’s been proven time and time again to not mean that much at all.
Phillip´s last blog post: Make Money Online site: [site]
November 24th, 2008 at 12:05 am
PR is really just a number. I say Control the Controlables. Unless you have a uncle who works at Google, you are powerless to control your page rank. So don’t worry about it and do something for your blog that you can control.
Kevin´s last blog post: The November TPS Report site: [site]
November 25th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Just get as many links as you can. Aim for the higher PR links first then work down. Remember PR is delayed 3-6 months on the toolbar, so a new blog will not show for some time.
Internal links also count, so build the PR of your site as you go.