Category: Google

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Google Toolbar PageRank Indicator is Bogus

I have several customers who monitor their website’s Google Toolbar PageRank. In fact, they do not take action on links unless the site has a favorable Google Toolbar PageRanking.

First off, it is important to understand that Google does not show your real organic PageRank in the Google Toolbar. Additionally, the PageRank in the Google Toolbar is not the same as PageRank on Google.com. Confused yet?

Here are the quick notes you should remember about the Google Toolbar PageRank indicator:

  • PageRank changes by page and not by website.
  • Each time Google crawls your site your Google.com PageRank may change.
  • For each search query entered on Google.com, Google delivers the pages in order of true PageRank not Toolbar PageRank.
  • Toolbar PageRank is not the same as PageRank.
  • Google does not show the real PageRank for any site so as to prevent SEO firms from working the system.
  • I have found that Google updates Toolbar PageRank infrequently sometimes once in six months.
  • A Toolbar PageRank of three could not carry the same real world Google PageRank as other three rated sites, there are more factors at play.
  • A high Toolbar PageRank does not mean a high Google.com PageRank.
  • You can probably now disable your Google Toolbar if you were using it for SEO position referencing.

I have found a terrific article at The Search Engine Journal that really digs deeper into this topic and would highly recommend that you read it. It debunks some of the misconceptions webmasters and website owners have had about the importance of the Google Toolbar PageRank. I personally do not use the Google Toolbar PageRank indicator for any decisions about my own website.

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Duplicate Content Revisited

To move up and stay up in the organic search results you have to have a content and link building program. When it comes to syndicating your own content there are a few guidelines that Matt Cutts of Google recommends.

“I would be mindful that taking all your articles and submitting them for syndication all over the place can make it more difficult to determine how much the site wrote its own content vs. just used syndicated content. My advice would be 1) to avoid over-syndicating the articles that you write, and 2) if you do syndicate content, make sure that you include a link to the original content. That will help ensure that the original content has more PageRank, which will aid in picking the best documents in our index.”

The bottom-line is that you need to tag the location of your original content so you will get credit from Google as being the author. This is especially important when you are using article syndication sites. We even recommend posting the content on your website first when possible and then a week later at the syndication sites. Now this tactic is not always possible, but if you can you’ll want to post on your site first.

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Canonical URLs: The WWW Quandary

To help improve your organic search placement it is important to let Google and other search engines know how you want your links returned and how they should index your website. Should it be linked and named as http://McCordWeb.com or http://www.McCordWeb.com? Specifically I mean in the example is there a www or no www in the URL. Deciding which way you want your links to show and be indexed is just another aspect you should address when you get serious about organic search placement. This issue is called canonical URLs.

I personally like URLs with the www. In all my content, all my links, all my code, I am consistent. I always use a www. You may prefer no www, and that is fine, just make sure that everything you do reflects this decision. The key is to be consistent everywhere. In the Google Webmaster Control Panel, you can tell Google how you want them to link and index your website URLs. This is key to making sure that the do not index both version of your website.

Additionally if you are on a UNIX server I install in the .htaccess file a script to rewrite URLs to my preference. Here is the script to add using my domain name as the example. Make sure to change to your own domain when you do the installation.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^mccordweb.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.mccordweb.com/$1 [R=301,L]

I have found a great article that very clearly explains this topic on www.searchengineoptimizationx.com and recommend it to you for further reading. This is an important issue for search engine placement and so really deserves your further consideration and action.

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Add a Star or +1 on Your Google Searches to Share What You Like

Google has made some pretty cool updates on their search engine recently namely the +1 and the star option. These new enhancements to personalized your search results allow you to highlight what you like and then share the information with others in your social network.

As for stars, you don’t have to keep track of the things you star, Google does. In fact when you star something Google synchs it with your Google Bookmarks and Google Toolbar. Once you star something, the item will appear at the top of your search window allowing you to find the information you want to revisit quickly.

Google says: “With stars, you can simply click the star marker on any search result or map and the next time you perform a search, that item will appear in a special list right at the top of your results when relevant,”

Pretty cool! With stars you are actually ordering your search results the way you want! I am seeing stars now on my Google.com search pages already. Another thing Google rolled out recently was the +1. Now this enhancement I have not seen yet, but it looks powerful. The +1 is kind of like stars on steroids. Here, your social network will be able to see what you have +1’ed. Websites will even be able to add +1 buttons almost like Facebook Like buttons.

What I find interesting about both new enhancements is that Google will be using this aggregate information to move search results higher on the Google.com organic placement page. Based on that information, you’ll want to keep an eye on stars and +1 activity as this new technology matures and becomes more widely used on the Web.