SEO For The Common Webmaster

When one creates a blog or website, a key is to find out if the effort is paying off. This can be seen in many aspects. We webmasters often want to see what our site is worth and what we need to work on. How much is your site worth?

This is a complex question. It takes a look at many factors from how many back links you have to your traffic stats. There are a few sites on the Internet that can track some of these stats for you and give a basic idea of where you are and how you are doing with your site. The problem I have run into is that when I want to check different stats, I have to jump all over the place to find different ones.

I recently ran across QPGR.com. They offer an updated set of Page Rank Checker & SEO Tools. This includes many of the standards used to judge a webmaster’s performance. Being located in one place relieves the stress and time of having to search all over the Internet to get all the stats you are looking for.

Their Quick Page Rank Checker gives you up to date rankings so you know what your current PR is. However, they also throw in Alexa traffic rankings, possible link sale value, site, value, back links, and more. The nice thing is, it takes only a few seconds to get the result of all of them with one simple tool.

These standard stats are not the end all to be all for a webmaster; however, it can give a nice sense of how you are doing. If you ranking and stats are super low for a given site, you know that you have a lot of work to do. If they are high, you know that you need to work to keep them there and you are inspired to work that much harder.

Checking your stats on a regular basis will allow you to find problem areas and improve on those to become more successful.

Google’s own Matt Cutts excited the online world yesterday by adding a bit of link bait to his blog. He announced that the Google Pagerank (PR) will be coming over the next few days. I have seen this linked all over the Internet and there is a buzz. Here is the post address if you care to see for yourself http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-pagerank-update/.

As I have written on this blog before, it is a good way to see how you are doing in creating back links but it is not good for a true measure of how your site is doing. It brings no traffic and it can easily be manipulated.

I do have to hand it to Matt though, link baiting is one of the best ways to build back links and his short little post has stirred up the webmaster world and his link is all over the place. Take an example from him and find hot topics that will create a stir and you too could see the benefit of such posts.

It is pretty certain that the next Page Rank update is going on. Many PR tools are buzzing with new numbers to excite the masses of webmaster. All the webmaster forums are pumping threads and threads about the current PR update.

I do not claim to have inside knowledge but I do believe Google has changed a few things in their algorithm again. I do not rely heavily on the PR number but it is a good measure of how well a webmaster has done when it comes to link building. I spent a good bit of energy and money to build links for this site. As of now, we have went from PR0 to PR2. This is much lower than I expected for all the back links that I have acquired. I have other blogs which are higher with a lot less links. I also think my links to this site were higher quality than the ones for the other blogs. This proves one thing, you can not figure out Google because their algorithm remains a secret.

Overall, some of my blogs were up and down. Some regained the lost PR from the last update and some remain the same and one loss ranking. This means nothing in the matter of traffic, my traffic has slowly increased over the last two months and I look forward to a bigger jump in the months.

How did your sites do? How important do you think PR is in the whole scheme of things? Please share you thoughts by leaving a comment.  

Well there is a definite changing in the Google data centers when it comes to Page Rank (PR) the last couple of days. As webmasters, many of us, yes including me, look at the holy Google PR update as some sort of sign rather we are doing a good job with our site. I decided it was a good time to analyze  the importance of PR.

First of all PR is simply a calculation of how many backlinks you have and the value of each one. There is a set formula that Google uses but it remains a big company secret what it is. Many will tell you just get a few good PR7-PR9 links and you will have at least a PR5, well in my experience this is not always correct. All PR7-PR9 links are not equal. Some say if the links are related to your sites niche (topic), than it will carry more value for PR. Once again, this has not been my experience. The best way I have found to build your PR is to constantly build back links wherever you can. If they carry PR juice, that is great, if not, someone might see your site and visit it. If you have a choice between a high PR link and a low PR link with all other factors equal, I would take the higher PR.

Now that I explained a little about PR, lets look at the importance of PR. Having many back links are very important to any site. By having high PR, it normally means you built several good back links. Does this equal more traffic? It may, but in most cases, it does not by itself equal more traffic. The main importance of PR is in the value it brings to your ability to sell blog posts, reviews, or links. People buying advertisement will often pay more for a link on a high PR site than on a lower PR site. The other factor of the importance of PR is when you go to sell a website or blog. Higher PR will often times increase what a buyer is willing to pay for a website.

If you do not plan to sell your website or blog and you are not concerned about selling advertising or text links, it is a waste of your time to even bother with rather you have PR or not.

So why do webmasters drool over PR? It simply comes down to the fact that  besides where your site is placed in the search engine results (SERPs), PR is a way that Google gives you some sign that you are doing something right for your site. It is an assigned number. You can see it, share it, advertise you have it, and it feels like a big pat on the back by the Google Gods.

People become webmasters for many reasons. It may be for fun, as a hobby, to make money, to advertise their business, or just for the thrill of sharing their life’s with others. No matter the reason, PR looks good but means nothing at all if you have no traffic to your website or blog. This is why I stressed the need for Quality Content. PR is fun to watch and can be a thrill, however, you should first and foremost create your website or blog for the benefit of your users. Write original material, advertise where you can. and do everything you can to get quality traffic flowing to you site.

In conclusion, PR is of small importance and the Google PR updates are like waiting for Santa at Christmastime; however, in the big scheme of web development, PR is of very little value. Spend your time developing the best website or blog you can and the rest will fall into place if you have patience to wait it out. If you add the best content you can and do the best SEO you can, I assure you that the rest will follow behind it.

The last few days weird things have been happening with the Google data centers. Many have been down, webmasters have reported up and down ratings for PR, and back links are being changed. Many sites are changing the Search Engine Results (SERPs).

There is a lot of talk through the webmaster forums that this is the next Google PR update. It would be very strange if this really was because the last update was around January 10th, 2008 and the common pattern has been every three months or so. It would be rare indeed to see such an update in just over a month.

One thing we webmasters can count on is the fact that Google remains a mystery and if we all think we have them figured out, they burst our bubble by changing things up. I too have seen some weird happenings the last two days. This blog, which was created after the last update, always showed n/a for PR. Today, it is showing PR0 which is sometimes an indication that the update is about to happen. The other sign I have seen is one of my blogs that was PR3 is showing up some places as PR2.

I still have no back links showing up on Google for seo08.com but I know I have several. This could be just an adjustment and not a full out update but I guess only time will tell. The last PR update came as a shock because the one before took a long time to happen. Is this a sign of quicker PR updates or just a Google burp and everything will be back to normal in a few days?

If you are seeing any weird stuff in Google PR, please share your experience by leaving a comment.