PR questions

[disgust]

1) was the PR system recalibrated somehow? I was trying for months to get my site from a 4 to a 5... this last update, it jumped from that 4 all the way to a 6! at first I was really surprised, but when I looked at other similar sites, a LOT of them had moved from 4 to 5... was like like a "micro-effect"? or did google make some big change?

2) like I said, my PR is 6... but it doesn't seem to be helping my search engine placement for the main page. VERY few <snip> sites have a 6 for a PR (under a dozen for sure), and we just got one. however, we're like on page 8 or so on google- even page 4's are coming before us. why is this? has the PR been updated but not the search index?

3) does the difference in PR matter if you don't "hit the next tier"? ie, if I get a bunch more inbound links- but I'm still a PR 6, not a 7- will it still help my placement or does it only matter once I hit that tier?

[edited by: Marcia at 4:59 am (utc) on April 16, 2004]
[edit reason] No specifics, please. [/edit]

[doc_z]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, disgust.

was the PR system recalibrated somehow?

I haven't seen any change for the logarithmic scale or the damping factor the last time when I examined these values. However, Google could have change the absolute relation between real PR and toolbar PR. But for the current PR system used by Google there is no way to determine this (as far as I know).

why is this? has the PR been updated but not the search index?

PR is just one ranking factor. There are other on- and off-page factors, e.g. anchor text.

Also, it seems that the update for the PR displayed in the toolbar is after the real PR update (which mean that PR has already been updated for the search index).

does the difference in PR matter if you don't "hit the next tier"?

Yes, internally Google uses real PR values, i.e. it makes a difference for the ranking if you have a high or a low (toolbar) PR6 page.

[disgust]

thank you.

apart from anchor text and the text in the body/title, what else influences it?

[steveb]

PR has nothing to do with anchor text or anything else except volume and PR-quality of links to a page.

[disgust]

I know, I meant, since my PR is high but the SERP is relatively low, what else should I do to improve the SERP?

[doc_z]

There are several threads discussing this topic, e.g. this one [webmasterworld.com].