ODP affect on Google PR

How much weight does Google PR give to ODP listings?

[jeffb]

I took on a site that had focused on an infrequently searched keyword phrase and optimized it for more frequently searched ones. Yet a month after adding stronger and better optimized content and about 60 carefully selected incoming links, Google PR for every page on the site has dropped 1 point. My suspicion is that because the ODP (and consequently, Google Directory) listings for the site both focused on the old keyword phrase, that Google now considers the site to be less "on-topic" than it considered it before. Has anyone else noticed such a strong weight being attributed to ODP in Google PR?

[Mohamed_E]

jeffb,

Welcome to WebmasterWorld!

PR has absolutely nothing to do with "on topic", it is arithmetically constructed from the links.

Many people here have been observing drops in PR (and, in many cases, much worse!).

The PR of my main site has dropped :( yet referrals have gone up :) . We live in strange times!

[DavidT]

In PR terms an ODP link is just the same as any other link, on its own. But, as a lot of sites use ODP data for their own directories, you also get PR from those sites/links as well. Not much but I suppose it adds up.

[Mohamed_E]

> Not much but I suppose it adds up.

At least directory.google.com doubles the PR contribution, I agree that the others add little.

[SlowMove]

I thought about using ODP data on my site, but found out that Google considers it to be duplicate content, except for the Google directory. That's why if you check the backlinks for sites listed in the directory, you won't see a lot of sites using ODP data in the SERPS.

When trying to get listed it's always a good idea to submit to a category with high PR. Some of the pages are PR6 or PR7. If it's the wrong category, they just resubmit it to a more appropriate category.

[DavidT]

Oops, yes Mohamed_E, forgot about the Google Directory. Although not sure it doubles the PR boost exactly, the same categories can have different PR's in ODP and Google's Directory.

[steveb]

"When trying to get listed it's always a good idea to submit to a category with high PR. Some of the pages are PR6 or PR7. If it's the wrong category, they just resubmit it to a more appropriate category."

That's not a good idea at all. In fact, it's a terrible one most of the time. You should submit sites to the most appropriate category. Mis-submitting is both rude and counter-productive as a large percentage of the time the editor dealing with the submission will not have privileges in the correct category, and thus will only be able to send it to the unreviewed group in the correct category. So, however long you wait, you wait twice. In addition, that first editor may only be making their best guess at the correct category, and the second editor may have to move it again.

To the point of the original question, ODP is like anything else. If you have a zillion links aimed at you with widgets in the anchor text, Google will think you site likely has something to do with widgets.

[fathom]

"When trying to get listed it's always a good idea to submit to a category with high PR. Some of the pages are PR6 or PR7. If it's the wrong category, they just resubmit it to a more appropriate category."

Agree with steveb. A better way to appropriate this is (if you really want "to get listed... to a category with high PR... pages are PR6 or PR7"), then develop content to meet the expectation of visitors to these catagories.

[jeffb]

What about link relevance, though? Does that not get factored into PR at all? Or does page relevance apply only to Google's assessment of the page as a whole?

[DavidT]

Link relevance is definitely important to the value of a link and how much it helps you overall in that Google looks at the title, text, headers, etc of the page where your link is on but this has got nothing to do with PR which is just one factor among many which affects said overall ranking.

[doc_z]

jeffb,

as already explained, (currently) relevance doesn't play any role for PR calculation. The only important points for the PR of your pages are the PR of the pages linking to you, the number of links on those pages and the link structure of your site.

Of course, for ranking aspects, anchor text is another important (off-page) factor.