Readers Question

Hello Sel,

I am confused if PageRank is really important. In your previous post, you said that Page Rank is not that really important because there are pages with low Page Rank yet ranked at the top of the SERP of Google and then there are pages with high Page Rank yet ranked lower at the SERP of Google.

However, I sense in your recent post that you’re quite happy to learn that your blog got the PR2 again.

Can you please explain why is it that you found it important to have higher Page Rank?

Newbie Blogger

Selboy’s Answer

In my article, “Why Does My Blog’s Page Rank Drop to Zero?” I did mention that the owner of the blog that has been slapped by Google with the PR of zero should not be worried. It’s because there are blogs with low page rank that are ranked high at the SERP of Google, and then there are also blogs with high page rank that are ranked low at the SERP of Google.

However, I couldn’t deny the fact that the Page Rank value showed by the Google toolbar is actually based on the actual Page Rank points of every webpage as calculated by Google.

That’s why I wrote this:

A Page Rank of zero (0) may mean that your link-building campaign is a failure, but it doesn’t mean that you’ll lose all the higher positions at SERP in a specific search.

So, if your blog got the PR of zero, then it is true that your link building campaign is a failure.

Please review my article, “Why does my blog’s page rank drop to zero?“. I mentioned few reasons why it happens.

High Page Rank, Ranked High at Google SERP

Now, since the Page Rank value showed by the Google toolbar is based on the actual Page Rank points of every webpage as calculated by Google, then it is also true that webpages with higher Page Rank are most likely be ranked high at the Google SERP, just like what the Google support posted:

Webpages with a higher PageRank are more likely to appear at the top of Google search results. (source)

What has been mentioned is that “higher pagerank are more likely to blah blah blah…” Which means, the webpage with high page rank has the possibility to be ranked high up at the Google SERP than those webpages with low page rank. But not at all the times those webpages with high page rank are actually ranked high up the Google SERP.

To understand what I am trying to tell you, please consider the example below:

Webpage A

• PageRank: 0
• Optimized with keywords: NDS Games, NDS Emulator, NDS Emulator Download

Webpage B

• PageRank: 5
• Optimized with keywords: Make Money Online, Make Money at Home

Webpage C

• PageRank: 2
• Optimized with keyword: Home Based Job, Make Money at Home

Question #1: From that given example, which of the webpages will be ranked at the top of the Google SERP when searching for “Make Money Online”?

My Answer #1: “Webpage B” got the Page Rank of 5. So with this fact, we can say that there is a big possibility that it will be ranked high up the Google SERP compared to the “Webpage A” and “Webpage C”. “Webpage B” and “Webpage C” are related to each other but “Webpage B” is optimized for the keyword “Make Money Online” compared to the “Webpage C”. Now since we are searching Google with the keywords “Make Money Online”, then Website B will be listed at the top of the SERP, next is the “Webpage C” and the last is “Webpage A”.

Question #2: What about if we will google “NDS Games”, how the webpages are being ranked?

My Answer #2: “Webpage B” and “Webpage C” have higher page rank than the “Webpage A“. However, only the “Webpage A” is optimized with the keyword “NDS Games“. Therefore, Webpage A is most likely at the top of the SERP.

Question #3: Which of the 3 webpages is most likely ranked number 1 if we will google “Make Money at Home”?

My Answer #3: “Webpage B” and “Webpage C” are both optimized with the keywords “Make Money at Home”. However, Webpage B has the PR of 5 compared to “Webpage C” which is only PR2. Thus, “Webpage B” is most likely ranked number 1 at the Google SERP.

Conclussion

To make this post short…

1. A webpage with higher Page Rank has the advantage over a webpage with low Page Rank especially when in a competition over a particular keywords or when they are both optimized on the same keywords.
2. Your blog’s ranking at the Google SERP is affected by the Page Rank and how your blog is being optimized.

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