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But back to the more normal serps. Anyone any theories about how often PR is updated?
I have a case study to share:
One site I watch, had a PR7 link to it for 12 weeks from Feb this year. Little else.
The sites index page PR has only just dropped back down from a 5, to a 3 despite losing that link months ago.
(Dropped back 4 days ago)
To me that means that that link was still being used from the end of April, May, June, July, and most of August.
However...
The traffic on this site has just increased by 75% in the last 4 days. Clearly there are other changes to the site, (recent doubling of pages), and despite the PR drop, positions seem to be holding.
There is one more piece of the jigsaw. I have a new PR6 link added, about 4 weeks ago. This is not showing in backlinks or PR, but seems to be having an impact on the site.
Now I can understand Google not reacting straight away to lost links. The serps would change too fast, as sites were down, spiders get eaten...
But why should a new link not show but have an impact?
[edited by: ciml at 6:52 pm (utc) on Aug. 21, 2003]
Even though the toolbar may only be updated every month or 45 days, there is very strong evidence that Google makes PR updates to a webpage on a much more frequent basis. I have seen this time and time again within the last 6 weeks. My personal belief is that when Google finds a new link to your site, they estimate the PR boost to your site and give you credit right away. Then they will fine tune the true PR to your site perhaps at the same time they update the toolbar PR. It just seems the computations in the iteration process would be too great to do every time Google finds a new link to a site IMO.
"But why should a new link not show but have an impact?"
Google is probably waiting to do it's in depth iteration process to fine tune the exact PR.
"I have a new PR6 link added, about 4 weeks ago. This is not showing in backlinks or PR, but seems to be having an impact on the site."
This is typical.
My personal opinion, which is NOT based on careful study, is that PR is still updated on a multi-week schedule (every 3-5 weeks), but that it is estimated in between that point on a page-local basis. I suspect that they have an algorithm that calculates included links as they are added, but then correct that over time as it has errors.
Permanent redirects seem to only be included/calculated on this longer schedule.
Of course, that's just a theory with little hard evidence to back it up, about something that I don't think is important enough to really dig into.
Of course, that's just a theory with little hard evidence to back it up, about something that I don't think is important enough to really dig into.
...but it it always nice to be able to understand. After all, it all comes out in the wash.
>>Even though the toolbar may only be updated every month or 45 days, there is very strong evidence that Google makes PR updates to a webpage on a much more frequent basis. I have seen this time and time again within the last 6 weeks.
However, another very well established site, steady high PR5 on many key pages, now has many PR0 pages. Performance is the same in the serps, but this I have not seen on older sites before. It does not fit the plan we are talking about, which suggests there are other factors involved as well.
IMO, there are still some real problems with the toolbar ranking of sites. For example, it's very common for me to hit a link to a site and have it show PR 0. If I click on an inner page of the site, that page may show PR 4. If I hit the back button, the index page will now show PR 5.
After the last toolbar and PR update (to the public) a few weeks ago, things cleared up a bit. It's my belief that Google still has a long way to go in terms of toolbar PR ranking accuracy. As I'm sure you know, ultimately, the only thing that matters is your position in the SERP's and what you have to offer the surfer looking for you're product or service. I think Google will get their act back together slowly but surely.
AL.
I have seen many links showing up as backlinks to sites and when you follow the link, they are PR 0. I really believe Google is still having problems with what the toolbar PR is showing. I'm not sure it's even a matter of the toolbar not being updated. IMO it just can not be trusted to be accurate in many situations.
Added lots of good inbound links. Site gained traffic and holds good SERPs, while apparent PR and backlinks dropped.
I have pages that are toolbar PR0 (white bar) that are showing up as backlinks to other pages (which means they must be PR4+). My guess is that the PR is constantly updated, just not the toolbar PR.
duh...I had never thought to look fot that, thanks! Ties in again.
Added lots of good inbound links. Site gained traffic and holds good SERPs, while apparent PR and backlinks dropped.
Thanks all for the helpful insights.
More often that the Toolbar shows :)
