Latest google PR update. Total misdirection?

[mynameisjim]

As you guys probably know Google just rolled out it's latest toolbar PR update. I noticed one of my better sites was dropped from a PR4 to a PR1 yet google traffic has gone up. I have also read many anecdotal accounts of pages losing PR yet gaining traffic this time around.

Matt Cutts has said they are tyring to get rid of people using toolbar PR to gauge sites so was this latest update just pure misdirection? I know they have a patent for an algo that delays the effects of SEO on search results so it's harder to put 2 and 2 together so misdirection is definitely in their playbook.

Also makes you think if they are spending this much time trying to trick webmasters, how much time do they have left over for improving their product?

[SharkFace]

None of my sites PR has changes at all and traffic is still pretty much the same.

[Cozy Monica]

Considering how much money Google has, I think they have all the time in the world to protect their algo, even if it means spending time trying to trick people.

However, I'm not totally convinced that this was an attempt to trick people.

[Mr. Lovepants]

Page rank is down on my adult sites and up on non-adult. Traffic from google is up all round.

[balls_deep]

some of my sites are down in PR but others are holding steady. Traffic is definitely up.

[horney]

I'm not totally convinced that this was an attempt to trick people.

Most of the changes in policy by search engine management, not only google, are reactive and defensive. There's a whole army and industry of "SEO Expert" spinners trying to prove they can beat the system and charge their clients fortunes for their attempts. They are forever trying to dream up new ways of conning the SEs into getting their own rankings higher. The SEs are forever designing new methods of combating what they, rightly in many cases, see as these dishonest attempts to cheat them.

[Charlies_Angel]

I think Google could trick everyone out with one fell swoop of changing their algos to personalized result sets rather than country or regional. Would be nearly impossible to gauge your rank and placement since everyone would see different indivudualized results.

A very early prelude to this was the voting buttons which I think Google rethought that old feature and decided not to weigh it too heavily (if at all). Personal results would be only thing those buttons would be good for when you think about it.

With their Gears and a usage feed from Adobe's AIR platform, individualized search results (and PR for that matter) would be a complete cake walk. But I think Google isn't ready to have everyone stop trying to beat their logic just yet... the mystery and challenge game is why they remain #1.

On the topic of delays - they've been around a while and different things have varying delays - such as page staying power, hit volume, etc. What makes it difficult is that the weights are not linear, they are more trajectory (like acceleration) in nature but hyperbolic / parabolic. Mix 2 or 3 factors and you're into a fifth degree mathematical curve. Just try and reverse engineer that.

I know full well I don't know jack about their algos.. but that's OK. Google has mastered the art of magic and mystery. I love that about them.

[Hammer]

Most of my sites stayed the same, none dropped and one new one went from a PR1 to a PR3. I can't complain.

[artwilliams]

I still have no PR but I am ranked 237,771 on Alexa

[phuckbunny]

I think PR is overrated. But I did lose a bit of goog traffic this update for some blogs and gained some for others. I don't think there's much you can do to second guess google. I've been posting these types of questions since I got into the porn blogging game around a year ago and what I've learned is - cover your arse, don't put all your eggs into one or two or three sites, and roll with the punches when the SEs start waltzing which is guaranteed to happen every few months.

[sunfunbill]

I'm not sure why everyone worries about the PR or where their site is. I mean, we all know you should be making your site as SEO friendly as possible, use good key words without overdoing it, get good links relating to your content, Use meta, title, description and so on with key words in them.

After that, there's nothing else you can do. Make a good site, update it everyday (My opinion, I know most don't) use good handwritten stuff that has not been copied, use the alt tags in pictures.

If that's not good enough for google, I'm not going to bother doing anything else. So relax!! I have no PR, but it's only 3 months old.

[theviking]

PR is just as important as the last sandcorn on the beach.
If you don't drop traffic, don't drop place in SERP's, why worry?


"Hi, i have a PR5 site and it is really informational with incoming links from a couple of the biggest schools in the country....uhm..and, i have about 100 visitors a day"

"Hi, i don't give a fuck about PR, but i have built a good serp on some good keywords, done some good linkxchanges and submitted my site to ~10 directrories/sites/gb/ld every day now for the past 4 weeks. How can i get more than the 10.000 visitors i get daily?"

Get rid of the PR paranoia man!