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After the May update the PRs remained the same. Yesterday though I noticed the search result listing for my homepage showed the date 5/28. I also found that the PR for my homepage had gone to gray - "Current page is not ranked by Google."
Just prior to the May update I had some duplicate text shared between one of my pages and the homepage. It was a start reading and click here to read more kind of thing from the home page, and then the other page had the full content, including the subsection that was on the homepage. I became concerned after reading a WW thread that this duplicate text between two pages might get me penalized, so I moved all of the text to the homepage and took the other page off the server - but not before it got indexed. Now Google has in its cache both my homepage with all the text, and the old page that is no longer on the server that also has all the same exact text.
I also noticed that one of my other pages dropped to PR0 - white bar.
So, my Questions are:
WHAT DOES THE GRAY BAR MEAN? Did I get penalized, or is it just the result of the new algo? Is there any way to tell for sure? I have searched the WW threads and resources and can't find a definitive answer to this.
WHAT DOES THE WHITE BAR MEAN? Again, is this penalization or just a new computation of PR?
IS THE DUPLICATE TEXT AS I DESCRIBED ON THE TWO DIFFERENT PAGES A DEFINITE NO-NO? I have found a lot on WW about not copying whole pages or even paragraphs from other sites, but what about cutting and pasting here and there within your own site?
Grey bar generally means a page is not in the google index.
White PR0 usually means no calculated PR or a genuine PR0 (no inbounds) or a penalty.
At the moment, google is totally unpredictable, so I would suggest you just stay a little cool about it for a few more weeks until things stabalise.
I can't answer the duplicate text point, but I doubt you would get penalised for part reproducing your own text.
What is far more important, and what you don't say, is how you're doing in the SERPS?
TJ
One thing I've noticed is that not having the keywords in my domain name is hurting me big time. I have the KW phrases in some other pages' URLs, but it's the homepage that has the outside incoming links and is in the DMOZ directory.
A search for one of my target KW phrases, the one I'm #19 for, yields two of my subpages that have the KWs in the URLs. The other KW search (#30 rank) yields my home page.
I'm considering moving the KW optimized text off of the homepage and on to a separate page that has the KW phrase in the URL. This would get me the benfit of the KWs in the URL, but I would loose the links. WHICH DO YOU THINK IS MORE IMPORTANT FOR PR - KWs in URL or LINKS (THAT AREN'T KW SPECIFIC IN THE ANCHOR TEXT) FROM LOW PR PAGES?
BTW, the #1 position for one of my KWs is held by an entry page that seems to be getting its position with just KWs in the URL and tons and tons of hidden text. It is extremely weak in links.
This helps everyone in the long run, not just you.
Domain names - agreed. They do seem more important at the moment in google. Also, at the moment, keyword density and content have more importance than anchortext for all the search results I see.
Remember though, the new google algo/update is not yet over in the sense that backlinks and some filters have not yet been fully implemented into the index. This will take a few more weeks, so my advice is do nothing at the moment. It could be that you have your site perfectly SEO'd for the new algo when it's running on all four cylinders.
Don't touch that dial! Just yet.
Personally I think that when the algo is finished, the importance of anchortext backlinks will take place once again above the importance of keyword density.
DMOZ use your home page title for the anchor text so make sure that has your keywords in it.
The reason keyword domain names used to be important is the anchor text they gave in backlinks. So, if someone linked to you, even if they used no anchortext at all, you still got your keyword anchortext because it's in-built already.
Just how important keyword domains will be when google is finalised remains to be seen. I'm certain that it will never hurt to have keyword.com, but I would personally avoid domains with dashes and underscores as I think it looks unprofessional and a little desperate to get a keyword in. But there's plenty of arguments against my point of view so you'll have to look through those arguments on here and make up your own mind.
Ultimately, when google is out of this transitory stage, if keyword domains remain important, you could change domain name to a keyword one. Do a search for "301 redirect" on these forums to find out how to get your PR and existing links to transfer from the old one.
Your DMOZ listing will help of course, and the fact that you got an editor to "cool" your site tells me you have a very high quality site with good content, so I'm sure it will do well. Good work on that front! As for the SERPS, I don't *think* that the cooling will help you in google. But it can't do you any harm.
Hope that answers your questions. Sorry if this posting doesn't read so well - I had to keep coming back to it in the middle of doing other things!
TJ
