Google Webmaster Tools News & Articles

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.

Yes, Google’s got your back — especially, if you’re a WordPress fanatic. A new security feature from Google Webmaster Tools is in the works.

The big G plans to test out this feature starting with WordPress-powered sites aiming to alert Webmasters on whether their Web sites have any vulnerabilities and, therefore, can be easily hacked.