PageRank No Longer Exists - a synopsis

[rollinj]

Google's PageRank now exists about as much as a tree falling in the woods does.

It was recently removed from the Google toolbar, removed from Google WMT over 2 years ago, now we are just waiting for this URL to go dead: http://toolbarqueries.google.com/tbr?client=navclient-auto&ch=816b09171&features=Rank&q=info:example.com/
With Google's recent stance on many of it's "non-monetizable" services, I fear that URL will soon be gone too.

As far as I know, that URL (or combination thereof) is the ONLY way to determine a website's PageRank. Not exactly user friendly. That, and it's reason for being is no longer existent, except for not through legacy google toolbar users out in the cold.

Will PageRank continue to the the SEO guru's borderline-secret-weapon?

Will Google completely internalize PageRank but keep using it as a metric?

I don't have any answers. Only questions.

[edited by: tedster at 1:15 am (utc) on Nov 29, 2011]
[edit reason] switch to example.com [/edit]

[anallawalla]

403. That’s an error.

Your client does not have permission to get URL /tbr?client=navclient-auto&ch=816b09171&features=Rank&q=info:example.com&safe=images from this server. (Client IP address: x.x.x.x)

Please see Google's Terms of Service posted at [google.com...]

Gone.

[rollinj]

To be fair, tedster broke the working example! I was simply linking to the official URL used for an ambiguous domain (not as ambiguous as example.com though!) to retrieve PageRank value from Google.

[matrix_jan]

It went long time ago. It's just one of 200 other ranking factors. The thing with it that we all are still attached to it is that it has numbers(you can measure it).

It was recently removed from the Google toolbar

Mine still has it. It had 300M+ value back in mid 2000's, so don't expect it to just disappear. And the fact that they started to update it more frequently shows that they still have plans with it. They might kill the url though, to push people to use their toolbar.

[Robert Charlton]

I'm still seeing TBPR on the Google Toolbar. "Removal" from other Toolbars involved a change of URL for toolbar queries, discussed in early October....

Is PageRank Gone?
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4371406.htm [webmasterworld.com]

All the non-Google tools apparently have been updated since.

[Andem]

I still use PageRank internally for external pages as a signal for many areas of my site. I am aware they changed the URL a couple of months ago but we've adapted and started using their new URL. It definitely has not been removed from the toolbar, but AFAIK, the toolbar for Firefox has been killed and will eventually not work anymore.

[superclown2]

I deleted my G toolbar ages ago. Pagerank now bears no relationship whatsoever to a page's earning power, which is all I'm interested in.

[Andem]

I always viewed PageRank as an indicator of trust. The more (high quality) links you had to a particular page, the better it fared in the search results. This still is the biggest sign of trust, I just think Google has changed the way they integrate this trust into their algorithms. They have also learned to discount links, but IMO, they haven't done it with any accuracy.

When I say the biggest sign of trust, everybody at Google must know that so-called social signals are the easiest thing to game. They may have Google+, but of my 283 real life friends on Facebook, only 3 exist on Google+ (and only 2 until 3 days ago)*. It's painfully clear that creating these signals from social networks are so cheaply gained that they should be discounted almost in their entirety.

PageRank now bears no relationship whatsoever to a page's earning power, which is all I'm interested in.

This is worrying. For those of us wishing to provide a worthwhile user experience while earning a few dollars to pay server bills and make a living, those who only want to make a buck and being encouraged to do so only makes matters worse. If that is the point of the Internet, I'm out.

* Note: I live overseas as an expat and I don't actively look for friends on G+. G+ is basically unheard of over here, at least among my colleagues and frieds.

[CainIV]

No real reason to use it explicitly anymore would be my answer. Nice to have as a guideline, but certainly not necessary.

[randle]

The "signal to noise" ratio with it is to the point of rendering it useless.

Its a pointless waste of time - cut it loose.

[jabas]

Well the pagerank was still indicating the importance of a page/domain, a PR6 is being crawled/indexed much more often & quickly than a PR1.. I guess.

[tangor]

Google invented Page Rank... and for the longest time it was a Pretty Good Thing. Then it was Gamed. That went on for a few years. Then it was retired. Bits and pieces of it might be part of the "algo" these days, but what made Page Rank King is no more.

[jabas]

Yes but it gives you an idea about how close you are to their "seed list" (pr10 sites, those where they start their crawling process with)

[tedster]

The original PageRank formula has been revised many times since the early days. But I'm certain it's still a healthy part of the ranking algorithm. It's just that so many other factors are also involved that you can't focus there exclusively and understand the rankings.

[Vamm]

I'm yet to see anyone with Page Rank 8 or higher saying "Page Rank does not matter".

[Vamm]

err, it should probably be "someone" instead of "anyone".

[rollinj]

@tangor: re: "Google invented Page Rank... and for the longest time it was a Pretty Good Thing. Then it was Gamed. That went on for a few years. Then it was retired. Bits and pieces of it might be part of the "algo" these days, but what made Page Rank King is no more. "

And @tedster too...

I think pagerank will exist forever in google's eyes (internally, within the company). All I am saying is that since it is now next to impossible to gauge for the average user (ALL new toolbar installs do not have any native pagerank capabilities, the best option are some shoddy third party extensions)... that it does not really exist.

Sure, a few people with older versions of the toolbar installed (not many webmasters or people concerned with websites will fit this category) can still see the pagerank of a site, but so what? The majority of these folk probably never knew what that "crazy green bar" was anyways.

Some background on me... I sell backlinks for a living. All of my customers are gung-ho crazy over pagerank. Backlinks with pagerank are my most popular product... and yet they have no real way of testing for the pagerank I provide them with (most bulk pagerank testers are horrible at best). I just don't get it.

I suppose the saying that "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" rings true here. I am guessing it will be 10 years before I stop hearing requests for backlinks with pagerank.

For Google, PageRank is forever (in some form or another). For the common webmaster... PageRank is dead.

True or not?

[rollinj]

@tedster: re: "But I'm certain it's still a healthy part of the ranking algorithm." specifically...

Yes of course it will be, but to Google only. The toolbar stopped being released for firefox after v4.0 I think... all of the new IE installs don't come with pagerank... and the only google chrome pagerank extension uses a google toolbar hack as far as I know. I would guess it is only going to be another few months before they disable public viewing of pagerank entirely.

[CovertSEO]

Why would they invest resources in updating it if it had no relevance?

[Leosghost]

Why would they invest resources in updating it if it had no relevance?

For FUD..( G are masters at FUD )..while you are looking at what the right hand* is doing ...


*G has more arms and hands ( each potentially deploying smoke and mirrors ) to distract webmasters than the various depictions of Hindu gods ;)