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Is Google PageRank Still Important?

Do you use the Google tool bar? It was once regarded as the weapon of choice for Search Engine Optimization specialists. It was also regarded as a great way to show off your popularity. How the times have changed. No one actually takes much notice of the tool bar PageRankâ„¢ anymore.

Well almost no one.

Why Should I Care?

You might be one of the many people who don’t use Google’s toolbar, have no idea what PageRankâ„¢ is, or you might not care either way. But if you’re a reader of my blog then it’s fairly safe for me to assume that you are learning how to make money online.

Understanding the relevance of PageRankâ„¢ and how it affects your own website or blog is going to become more important to you as you gain more visitors and readers, and attempt to monetize your site.

PageRankâ„¢ Died a Horrible Death

PageRankâ„¢ comes in 2 flavors. There is the PageRank that Google assigns on fly when each search query is performed. Let’s call this algoritm PageRankâ„¢. This kind of PageRankâ„¢ is used to determine who get placed where on a search result page.

The other flavor is know as Toolbar PageRankâ„¢. The system worked by assigning a number from 0 – 10, based on a series of factors that Google doesn’t share. The higher the number, the more green you would see in the bar and the more auhtoritative your site was considered.

But the system was always flawed. Mostly because of the delay, or lag.

Toolbar Page Rank has always been a long way behind what the algorithm PageRankâ„¢ reported. What this means is that today, the algorithm may have decided that your site is a PR4, but your toolbar would still show a PR0. This lag meant that the toolbar was effectively useless because the data it provided was inaccurate.

PageRankâ„¢, as it was originally intended, was designed to give folks a quick, birds eye view, of how important Google thought your website and pages were. Those days are long gone. Or are they?

PageRankâ„¢ for SEO Eggberts

I want to take just a quick moment to clarify something. Everything that you’ve read here so far actually only relates to anyone who is learning about SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Google’s tool bar PageRankâ„¢, in SEO terms, is simply a novelty.The only real use it has is assisting you in finding sites that would be good candidates to get links from. Other than that, it provides no real value or insight to speak of.

TIP: If you talk with any SEO expert who starts discussing PR numbers with you, then you know they are a eggbert rather than an expert!

The Other Side of PageRankâ„¢

Okay so is there another side to this PageRankâ„¢ thing that I need to know about? Of course there is. After all I didn’t write this post for nothing. So let’s get into the nuts and bolts of it.

Now we know that PageRankâ„¢ is a flawed system and the tool bar doesn’t help or even provide accurate data but none of that matters to you. The internet marketer. The infopreneur. The up and coming guru. But why?

Advertisers! That’s why.

On most websites and blogs you have 3 main monetization strategies available to you.

1. Promote affiliate products
2. Contextual Advertising – like Adsense
3. Sponsored Advertising – like banner ads or reviews

If you’re only promoting affiliate products or your own products on your website then none of this will matter much to you. But I’d challenge you to find me a blog or site that promotes more than a single product that doesn’t use at least contextual advertising like Adsense or Chitika.

However as an affiliate you should be aware, particularly for CPA offers, that your probably not seeing all the available offers because your site has a low PageRankâ„¢.

Advertisers still consider PageRankâ„¢ to be an important factor in making the decision to place advertising on your site. Of course the savvy advertiser already knows that they should be looking at much more data than PageRankâ„¢. The reality is however that many advertisers simply look at PageRankâ„¢ and make a decision from there.

In fact some advertising networks, particularly those that offer cash for comment (paid reviews) won’t even display your site to an advertiser if your PR is below 3.

Another big advantage to a higher PageRankâ„¢ is that the contextual advertising networks will often pay the highest bid amount possible for the privilege of displaying contextual ads on your site or blog.

Finally there are the sponsored banner ads. Usually these advertisers will care more about your monthly unique visitors than they will about your PageRankâ„¢ but…there are still advertisers who will pay much higher prices to advertise on a site with 2x the PageRankâ„¢ and half the traffic.

God only knows why, but that’s the way it is. If you want more advertising dollars, the PageRankâ„¢ is still very important to your bottom line.

Group Discussion

Do you think PageRankâ„¢ should carry as much weight as it does for advertising revenues? Have your say in the comments.

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Tags: blog, Blogging, eggberts, google, google tool bar, how to make money, monetize blog, optimization specialists, page rank, search engine optimization