Is the Next PageRank Update Coming… Ever?
Lynn Little caught my attention recently with her post, “The End of PageRank?“! In this post she suggests that Google may be putting an end to its practice of ranking websites…!
If you visit the PageRank Update or Export List History section of the SEO Company, you will notice that this is currently the longest ever between an update! In fact, it was previously estimated, based on past data, that the update would occur sometime in July of this summer!
Is it time to panic? Is PageRank dead?
I highly doubt that PageRank is dead. PageRank is the idea that brought Google to power and helps their search results be very accurate. With a system in place that is stilll working fine, I see no reason that PageRank would be removed from the equation. Google constantly makes changes to their algorithms, but I can’t see them taking out PageRank.
So what may be changing? Well, it is entirely possible, that since PageRank is so important to Google returning accurate search results, that they may be discontinuing their practice of revealing PageRanks in order to make it more difficult for people to find ways to cheat the system. In fact, they’ve already tried to make it more difficult by increasing the delays between PageRank updates. Perhaps they have decided to increase the delays even further!
Even though we cannot currently see the updated PageRanks, they still definitely update all the time. According to Googles Webmaster Tools, BattleCity Classic has been my highest ranked page for the last three months. According to my Google tool bar, BattleCity Classic only has a PageRank of 1, but is still listed as my highest ranked page even though I have others where the tool bar displays a PageRank of 3!
So, is PageRank dead? I doubt it. I can definitely see the delay having been increased even further, but since so many advertisers, including those using Google Adwords, use PageRank and Alexa very closely when selecting ideal advertising hot spots, Google will likely continue the practice of ranking websites and releasing this information to the public. They may just take 6 months to do it so mischievous people will have to learn to write good content in order to get search engine traffic!
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