Google PageRank Update November 2012

So, Google PageRank has been updated again this week, just as expected. And so far, the update does not seem to be a major one - but then again, give it some time. The last update took place in August 2012, and the one before that on May 2012. So it's pretty obvious that Google is now rolling out these updates quarterly, i.e. after every three months. So the next update is expected in the first 10 days of February 2013. We congratulate everyone whose PR didn't drop. And for those whose did, there's a few things you can do which we will mention. And again, keep in mind that Google PR should not a priority for you - read on to see why.

What does PageRank do?

As most of you might already know, PageRank is Google's way of assigning a grade to a website from 0 to 10. Google rates itself at PR 9, so that drops the ceiling somewhat. And for blogs with little or no investment (such as this one), the maximum PR achieved yet is 6. Blogs such as TechCrunch, Mashable, Search Engine Land etc are corporate websites, run by an organization. They have multiple authors, as well as marketers and managers who manage and promote the website at the back-end - all of which requires investment. So for a low-investment blog, the target should be 6.

As to the question of what PR actually does, well it's just a way of rating websites. Website with a high PR get crawled and indexed more frequently. For example, a PR 7 website might get crawled several times in a minute, whereas a PR 4 or 5 website might be crawled just once per minute.

PR is also one of the factors advertisers look for in a blog, but is by no means the ONLY factor. There are a lot of other factors they look at first.

What to do?

Has your PR dropped? Don't worry. You can pick it up still. Lots of people think hundreds of backlinks is the way to go. That couldn't be further from the truth. Instead of having hundreds of backlinks, it's better to just concentrate on having just a few very high quality backlinks (PR 4 or higher). So stop wasting your time commenting on low PR blogs for backlinks. Rather, write a good guest post on a high PR blog. Adopt this practice, and you'll see your PR increase in the next update.

Besides that, you should concentrate on the quality of your page, as well as some of the basic SEO, so that Google recognizes your efforts. Here is a list of some of the best SEO tips you should follow.

What should your priority be?

As mentioned earlier, PR is just ONE of the factors advertisers look for in a blog. But there are other more important factors as well. The first thing they look for is your readership, i.e. whether you have an active community of followers who participate on your blog. Then comes social media fan following, and even though such stats could be inflated (by buying likes), it is the activity about your blog that counts.