
Google has recently finished one if its much anticipated, quarterly PageRank updates. You might recall that on the previous update which occurred back in July, BlogaPro was promoted to a PR value of 2 out of 10.
The latest results are in, and BlogaPro has received a 3 which is lower than my expected value of 4. All in all, I’m not complaining. It does show that the site is moving in the correct direction. On the plus side, I’m halfway to bringing the site’s PR in line with Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger.
PageRank starting to carry Value
Previous to this most recent update, I always felt that Google’s trademarked PageRank was merely a number, but my opinion is quickly changing. Google employees have been hard at work bringing sites’ semantic values in line with their PageRank.
One example of this alignment is ProBlogger, statistically one of the most visited blogs in the world according to Alexa. ProBlogger was recently demoted from 7 to a 6 out of 10. While the layout or design of the site is aesthetically pleasing, there is more to a page than looks. Why do I believe Google’s latest valuation is fair?
- ProBlogger’s ratio of HTML tags to content is atrocious. The source code consists of ambiguous HTML code to unnecessary CSS and Javascript (which should be defined in another file).
- Consider how many links are listed on the front page? Other than a brief synopsis of around 11 posts, the rest of the page consists of links - hardly semantically valuable.
- There are numerous ads spread across the page. Don’t get me wrong, my goal is to make money blogging, but they do detract from the value of a page.
Now please note that this assessment was conducted with only the front page in mind.
Frustrations with Google
I am of the firm opinion that Google is reshaping the web, and not for the better. The Internet was initially designed as a fair playing field and this ethos is evident from every aspect from its network infrastructure to the registration of domain names to web site accessibility. Now, Google is one of the few companies trying to change this.
Here are just three of many examples of Google’s attempt of to create an elitist web:
1. Google has recently deemed directories worthless that is unless you are the Open Directory Project (ODP). This is Google’s attempt of preventing individuals from promoting their site by paying for inclusion into various web directories. Prior to Google’s damning of directories, directories were my number one source for SEO (and I’m not talking about paid inclusion), but that has all changed. Unfortunately, Google’s latest policy on directories really hurts the small fish in the pond. After all, those individuals/organizations that pay for inclusion will likely focus their attention elsewhere, spending their money in a more effective manner.
2. Link exchanges are less as effective as they once were. Webmasters now find themselves having to resort to one-way linking. Unfortunately, this means having to resort to paying for one-way links. Any of you going to give away one-way links on your blogs? Of course not, one-way links are not mutually beneficial. Again, only the big fish are likely to benefit from such a principal. You might be inclined to jump on me and suggest that paying for links is against Google’s TOS. True you are, but Google’s crawlers cannot detect any transactions that have occurred behind the scenes.
3. The search engine giant is now more selective on which types of pages are valuable. For example, it is clearly evident that an article from a news organization is more effective in a linking scheme than that of a random site’s ‘resource page’. But which news organization is about to list BlogaPro in its front headlines? Exactly!
Let us hope that Google changes its ways; otherwise, I just might conduct my searches elsewhere.