PageRank 10 after site overhaul - How? Why?

[Cheeser]

I searched long and hard before posting this, but please forgive me if it's been discussed before.

My client, a brick-and-mortor retailer, used to have a very poorly designed site. One of the reasons they agreed to redesign with us is our promise to improve their search engine rankings (they had literally no pages indexed in Google, so it was something we could actually guarantee). Of course, no black hat was involved -- just good design, navigation and layout.

They launched the new site late Sunday, and this morning had 10 pages indexed (out of maybe 100 total), #2 result for their company's name (where they had no results previously)... and the real shocker.... page rank 10 for the home page.

Has anyone seen or experienced this before? I certainly haven't. I'm not playing it up at all with the client because it's too ridiculously good to be true.

Comments?! I'm flabbergasted.

[netmeg]

Particularly weird since TBPR is supposed to be at least 3 to 6 mos behind actual PR. So what you see would be for their old site.

I'd check it with another tool, or five. And see if it lasts.

[martinibuster]

Glitch... unless they have millions of backlinks. :P One of my sites had a PR 8 many years ago for three months but it was a glitch.

[BillyS]

Hmm, I did a quick search and there are only about a dozen known PR 10 sites. In the lists I've seen, nothing comes close to looking like a retailer.

[McMohan]

I have a suggestion for you. Negotiate a good price with your client for his site and start selling text links from the homepage. Ever heard millionaire over night? :-)

Definitely a glitch. If it were PR10, chances are high many of us would have known the website.

[edited by: McMohan at 4:35 am (utc) on April 8, 2008]

[cbpayne]

Where did you get the PR10 from? The google toolbar or one of the toolbar prediction sites?

[Cheeser]

It's still PR10 today on the toolbar. I also tested it with some of the online checkers and they all report 10.

I'm positive it's a glitch, but how long will it last? :)

To answer netmeg, the old site, prior to the switchover Sunday, had TBPR zero (white bar).

[ETA: Their site, in some incarnation or another, has been online since 1998.]

[edited by: Cheeser at 3:13 pm (utc) on April 8, 2008]

[Cheeser]

OK, thanks very much to Miamacs here on WebmasterWorld for catching that some previous design of the site did the 'nasty fake redirect to Google.com' trick to get PR 10.

What I'm still confused about is why it didn't show up until they switched to the new site. Still, I'll be extremely pissed if it comes back to bite them... because, as their current provider, it'll be up to us to fix it.

[onlineleben]

also tested it with some of the online checkers

Also used these tools some days ago. Last thursday got a perfect PR 20 on one DC and lots of 7s on others. Today its back to a normal 4 and i can go to sleep again without worrying if it stays or not.
Don't care too much about PR

[MadeWillis]

Last thursday got a perfect PR 20 on one DC

Care to sell me a link? I'll take my chances with Google for that!

[5ubliminal]

If you 301 your site to google.com you might get a PR10. Maybe your TBPR doesn't refresh properly. Try in several browsers.

[tedster]

some previous design of the site did the 'nasty fake redirect to Google.com' trick to get PR 10... I'll be extremely pissed if it comes back to bite them

I'm glad that Miamacs spotted that one for you. I doubt that it will cause a problem with Google. It didn't affect search results at all - and any way, you removed it.

[elan]

You might have seen your PR wrongly. Double check with online PR checkers.