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Is Google PageRank No Longer Important?

By Barb Mosher  | Published Oct 16, 2009

Do you constantly watch the Google toolbar in your browser to see if your Google PageRank has changed? Do you worry constantly about why your rank is less than that of a competitor? Well, there may not be any reason to worry any longer.

Google has dropped PageRank data from Webmaster Tools. In a thread on Google Webmaster help, Google employee Susan Moskwa, said this:

We've been telling people for a long time that they shouldn't focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it's the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true. We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it.  :-)

Google goes on to say in a Forum that PageRank is not really important anyway as it only gets updated in the Google Toolbar a couple of times a year.

Apparently there are more important metrics for the webmaster to focus on, found via Google Analytics, including things like:

  • conversion rates
  • ROI (return on investment)
  • relevancy

and a lot more.

PageRank data disappeared around the same time a Google Labs section was introduced to the Webmaster Tools area. This labs section includes new tools like Fetch as Googlebot and Malware details.

Of course, PageRank still appears in the Google Toolbar. So you`ll either have to continuing stressing over your rank or learn to ignore it. Apparently, Google chooses to ignore it.

 
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5 Reader Comments

1 | Liz — October 18, 2009 6:59 AM

It's all well and good to say ignore pagerank from now, but let me give you a quick example of the problem. I recently (1 sept 09) changed my domain name to my current site address. The old site was ranking PR3. My new site doesn't have a rank assigned yet. And let me tell you, regardless of what content is on the site (it's way better than my old URL was when it got PR3 in April), people with PR3 and higher just do NOT want to do link exchanges with PR NA sites!!!! Now what do I do about that? It's not possible to change people's perceptions overnight, and it means that good quality sites with low PR are kind of stuck. There needs to be more fanfare around this change in policy. Not every web master stays in touch with these kinds of developments on a regular basis.

2 | ra — October 19, 2009 12:51 PM

And what about for ad sales? Everyone that I have ever worked with to sell links has exclusively focused on PR as a barometer of how much a link is worth. I had a massive drop in PR just now, now I only command peanuts.

3 | Gabe — October 22, 2009 10:15 AM

PR will always have a special place in Google's heart. We'll just never know exactly how much weight is put on it though.

4 | Andi — October 27, 2009 8:27 AM

I agree with the comments above. PR does have significance in people's minds becuase it is far easier to sell advertising with a good page rank, regardless of the amout of traffic you receive. Perhaps Google should consider completely dropping it if they don't consider PR important.

5 | Jan — January 11, 2010 10:34 AM

PR shows how importance the site for Google and it may help improve the rankings of your site.

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