9 ms·

Google PageRank Is Not Dead

66 points by pierreneter 8y ago

chernoby 8y ago
Check out https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/ if someone says its not dead, that means it is already dead.
- blackoil 8y ago
  hmm, does it work vice-versa, i.e. `if someone says dead, that means alive and kicking`.
  - chernoby 8y ago
    Even its vice-versa, if its not profitable enough google shutdown these services...
system2 8y ago
Not dead doesn't mean useful. Best case, it is providing partially correct information.
- sweezyjeezy 8y ago
  I think the author's point is that it is still a metric that Google use, so still potentially something worth optimising.
stevenicr 8y ago
From what I see the old Google is dead from self inflicted wounds. In an effort to destroy spam they removed lots of good sites and changed things for the future webmasters and users. sadly the only game in town for new sites these days is likely facebook traffic, snapchat and youtube. Google has been looking more and more like the yellow pages in my experience. They serve fast local results because so many people crowd source the info as it's used a lot. As far as finding useful things outside of local results, the quality varies and the things that are censored are more due to their war on spam than any regulations. The good thing is that people can still share cool things via snapchat, fbook and their future replacements. The need for google is not the same as it once was. Sure people will continue to use it as it's convenient for many local searches and accurate enough for that, and its default choice on many mobile devices. as for web sites and their creators, trying to please google's changing pleasure zones is an unending game without clear rules, taking time and money without an end in sight. Their war an spam has crushed many that were not trying to fight it. Between mysterious penalties (algorithmic of course, the manual ones are not so mysterious unless it's the google plus network), negative seo, and competition that uses inside info, there is little hope for new sites in many categories to get top placement. I suggest to either establish local brick and mortar to get those kind of local results with google, or give up fighting google's algorithm and the competition - just buy some ads with them, but consider that you'll likely get more quality visitors with ads and engagement with fbook, snap and others. Given the search results I had today when looking for a particular model of samsung cell phone - I would guess that page rank is playing a bigger role than one might have guessed - even though it said results effected by your neighborhood location (my neighborhood listed) - I sure had lots of results for phone companies in the UK and other abroad places that offered no helpful information to me about the unlocked phone and how it worked with various lte bands here. Of course, selection bias and all that, other people's experience will vary. If most of your searches are for stack exchange info you might feel they are relevant and awesome. I prefer to use search engines to search for multiple different sources of info about things to get a bigger picture.
- SubiculumCode 8y ago
  I feel like I find fewer interesting (or odd) little websites these days through Google..Either they no longer exist, or Google ignores them. It is strange and disheartening.
  - metildaa 8y ago
    Google is ignoring these sites, using Bing, Qwant or DuckDuckGo works much better for queries where uour looking for that obscure site thst is a treasure trove of info. Part # are another area where Google Search has notably gotten worse over the past half decade. I've emailed multiple Googlers who claim to want to fix these crap results, but I have yet to have one bother to respond (despite them replying to my comments asking me to contact them!)
    - Semaphor 8y ago
      Obscure searches is what I use "!g" for. DDG is horrible with them, especially with the change of ignoring forced terms.
      - metildaa 8y ago
        Ah, its been a while since I tried forced terms on DDG. Been using Qwant for a while now...
        SubiculumCode 8y ago
        I haven't heard of that. Any good?
        metildaa 8y ago
        Its sufficent to keep me off Google, which neither DDG or Bing could ever achieve. I do occasionally get imposter syndrome, and search something on Google too, but the results are generally more accurate on Qwant (for me at least). Where Google kills it is built-in currency conversion, wikipedia previews and such.
gcatalfamo 8y ago
Although it has some content, this article is generic enough to make me think is is a SEO strengthening article from ahrefs for certain keywords...
- bad_user 8y ago
  The article is an advertisement for their "URL Rating".
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
  A spam post advertising a spam product from a spam company? On a subject that is of particular interest to spammers? Surely not!
googlemike 8y ago
> No replica of PageRank exists. Period. > But there are a few similar metrics around, one of which is Ahrefs’ URL Rating (UR). There you have it folks, the article in a nutshell. While somewhat interesting and still vaguely informing, the primary goal is to sell you something. TLDR: "Pagerank as a single metric to track your sites ranking for Google is dead. Use my single metric to track your sites ranking for Google"
- victorbojica 8y ago
  Even tough it's a plug, it's a nice one and the content IMHO is pretty good...
  - googlemike 8y ago
    Sure, but something about the echo of the sound of salesmen makes the whole thing a measurable deal worse. At least, enough for me to be put off by it - if only a tad. If the sole aim was to educate and inform, leaving the sales pitch off would have been better.
elihu 8y ago
I think the PageRank patent is finally expired, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. If so, that's just one less roadblock in the way of anyone who wants to enter the search engine market and challenge Google and Bing.
- icebraining 8y ago
  The original patent is expired, though Google has patented some tweaked versions since then, which are still protected, so one has to be careful when using it.
balibebas 8y ago
The brutal rebuff reminds me of the argument against using keywords, which I still add to my websites as, when used appropriately, adds value. PR is similar in that, while it may no longer matter to Google, it still matters (and you don't have to pay $7/mo. to figure that out) because there are other search engines crawling the surface Web that aren't Google.

66 points by pierreneter 8y ago

Check out https://killedbygoogle.com/ https://killedbygoogle.com/ if someone says its not dead, that means it is already dead.

blackoil 8y ago
hmm, does it work vice-versa, i.e. `if someone says dead, that means alive and kicking`.
- chernoby 8y ago
  Even its vice-versa, if its not profitable enough google shutdown these services...

system2 8y ago

Not dead doesn't mean useful. Best case, it is providing partially correct information.

sweezyjeezy 8y ago
I think the author's point is that it is still a metric that Google use, so still potentially something worth optimising.

stevenicr 8y ago

From what I see the old Google is dead from self inflicted wounds. In an effort to destroy spam they removed lots of good sites and changed things for the future webmasters and users. sadly the only game in town for new sites these days is likely facebook traffic, snapchat and youtube. Google has been looking more and more like the yellow pages in my experience. They serve fast local results because so many people crowd source the info as it's used a lot. As far as finding useful things outside of local results, the quality varies and the things that are censored are more due to their war on spam than any regulations. The good thing is that people can still share cool things via snapchat, fbook and their future replacements. The need for google is not the same as it once was. Sure people will continue to use it as it's convenient for many local searches and accurate enough for that, and its default choice on many mobile devices. as for web sites and their creators, trying to please google's changing pleasure zones is an unending game without clear rules, taking time and money without an end in sight. Their war an spam has crushed many that were not trying to fight it. Between mysterious penalties (algorithmic of course, the manual ones are not so mysterious unless it's the google plus network), negative seo, and competition that uses inside info, there is little hope for new sites in many categories to get top placement. I suggest to either establish local brick and mortar to get those kind of local results with google, or give up fighting google's algorithm and the competition - just buy some ads with them, but consider that you'll likely get more quality visitors with ads and engagement with fbook, snap and others. Given the search results I had today when looking for a particular model of samsung cell phone - I would guess that page rank is playing a bigger role than one might have guessed - even though it said results effected by your neighborhood location (my neighborhood listed) - I sure had lots of results for phone companies in the UK and other abroad places that offered no helpful information to me about the unlocked phone and how it worked with various lte bands here. Of course, selection bias and all that, other people's experience will vary. If most of your searches are for stack exchange info you might feel they are relevant and awesome. I prefer to use search engines to search for multiple different sources of info about things to get a bigger picture.

SubiculumCode 8y ago
I feel like I find fewer interesting (or odd) little websites these days through Google..Either they no longer exist, or Google ignores them. It is strange and disheartening.
- metildaa 8y ago
  Google is ignoring these sites, using Bing, Qwant or DuckDuckGo works much better for queries where uour looking for that obscure site thst is a treasure trove of info. Part # are another area where Google Search has notably gotten worse over the past half decade. I've emailed multiple Googlers who claim to want to fix these crap results, but I have yet to have one bother to respond (despite them replying to my comments asking me to contact them!)
  - Semaphor 8y ago
    Obscure searches is what I use "!g" for. DDG is horrible with them, especially with the change of ignoring forced terms.
    - metildaa 8y ago
      Ah, its been a while since I tried forced terms on DDG. Been using Qwant for a while now...
      - SubiculumCode 8y ago
        I haven't heard of that. Any good?
        metildaa 8y ago
        Its sufficent to keep me off Google, which neither DDG or Bing could ever achieve. I do occasionally get imposter syndrome, and search something on Google too, but the results are generally more accurate on Qwant (for me at least). Where Google kills it is built-in currency conversion, wikipedia previews and such.

gcatalfamo 8y ago

Although it has some content, this article is generic enough to make me think is is a SEO strengthening article from ahrefs for certain keywords...

bad_user 8y ago
The article is an advertisement for their "URL Rating".
SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
A spam post advertising a spam product from a spam company? On a subject that is of particular interest to spammers? Surely not!

googlemike 8y ago

> No replica of PageRank exists. Period. > But there are a few similar metrics around, one of which is Ahrefs’ URL Rating (UR). There you have it folks, the article in a nutshell. While somewhat interesting and still vaguely informing, the primary goal is to sell you something. TLDR: "Pagerank as a single metric to track your sites ranking for Google is dead. Use my single metric to track your sites ranking for Google"

victorbojica 8y ago
Even tough it's a plug, it's a nice one and the content IMHO is pretty good...
- googlemike 8y ago
  Sure, but something about the echo of the sound of salesmen makes the whole thing a measurable deal worse. At least, enough for me to be put off by it - if only a tad. If the sole aim was to educate and inform, leaving the sales pitch off would have been better.

elihu 8y ago

I think the PageRank patent is finally expired, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. If so, that's just one less roadblock in the way of anyone who wants to enter the search engine market and challenge Google and Bing.

icebraining 8y ago
The original patent is expired, though Google has patented some tweaked versions since then, which are still protected, so one has to be careful when using it.

balibebas 8y ago

The brutal rebuff reminds me of the argument against using keywords, which I still add to my websites as, when used appropriately, adds value. PR is similar in that, while it may no longer matter to Google, it still matters (and you don't have to pay $7/mo. to figure that out) because there are other search engines crawling the surface Web that aren't Google.