Seems like the Pagerank update is happening, and I am getting hit. I’ve dropped from a PR4 to a PR3 (on the plus side, if there was a -2PR hit, so chances are that I’d have been a PR5 if I hadn’t a been a naughty boy – but then again, I am now was on the same pagerank as Youtube 
). Now, I’m not going to cry, and I’m taking the classic “Pagerank sucks because pagerank think I suck” route displayed by half the blogosphere, so here’s my thoughts on all the major players regarding Google’s last update.
It’s odd this whole debacle that – even though I have been penalised PR wise, I’m still there or there abouts for the word “Rhys” on Google Page 1. Okay, it’s not the most desired of keywords, but say if somebody else got penalised with a better keyword, will they get knocked down? Seems all a bit half arsed, like “We’ll do it! But it’s Friday afternoon, and I want to go to the pub” mentality. I know it shouldn’t be instantaneous, but it seems like they’ve just devalued PR.
Like Doctorvee posted, I rely very little on search engines (it’s about 5% of my daily traffic), prefer relying on word of mouth and people posting about my blog (including A.T.’s recent post basing a competition about a comment I made). So my position in google is still quite high for phrases such as “Contiki Tour Sex Stories”, “Rhys” and the classic keyphrase “Guy McGechan”.
Other Search Engines
As a comment on a previous post by Ken, he suggested that some search engines should provide webmasters with a ranking tool to beat Google. Looks like some already did. I recieved a phone call (yes, a phone call) from Lycos asking me if I would submit my site to their search engine (which I duely did), and are apprarently going to launch a major advertising campaign soon. Yahoo could be doing similar, maybe they see this as a weakness in google and want to exploit it.
My Site
Well, I’m now a PR3 site, which means this site is about as important as a website for a village community centre. However, I have always based the success on this site on RSS readers and Traffic (and so should you). My RSS has been rather steady, but my traffic has had a dramatic increase last week:
To borrow a phrase from Shakira – “Hips Stats Don’t Lie”. Ironically, my traffic has shot up when I got hit, Jem thinks it’s because I complained, she’s probably right.
Some of my other sites have picked up huge gains though. Fair Review is now a Pagerank 4 site, rhyswynne.co.uk is now a Pagerank 3 (from Pagerank 2) and Retro Garden, a site I haven’t worked on for yonks, is now Page Rank 4! I just don’t get it!
And Pagerank, I’ve decided that the white bit, not the green bit, is the most important thing associated with Pagerank. Why? Well, it’s simple:
Suddenly, it all makes sense, doesn’t it?
Comments: 18 Comments
Rhys Wynne, the author of this blog, is a 20 something web designer from Colwyn Bay. 
Thanks for the link love! By the way, my blog is now a PR4. That makes lot’s of sense doesn’t it?
THATS the size of your penis?!
You poor, poor boy…
Graphic fixed, press f5 to refresh
I have had many clients of mine complain about their PR going down. My website has a 0 PR, but it’s only a month old so I’m not worried. However, my other website just received PR of 3 and weirdly enough, my traffic has went down, yet Google gave a page rank. Weird, weird stuff, I say. And of course, PR should not be obsessed about when it comes to running a website. Webmasters need to have love for the act and not just love for PR, stats, comments, money, etc. Great post.
Good news indeed!
Can I ask a favour? Given that I don’t yet know how to set up a 301 redirect, can you alter the link that you so kindly gave me to include the www?
My site has been about as important as a website for a village community centre for ages.
I decided about a month ago that I was obsessing about visitors and page rank and stuff too much, so I have deleted all that stat taking stuff off my site. For a while though I was checking my stats and going what… no visitors?
Also, I don’t know if something has gone wrong, but my thing in firefox says your site is PR6.
That’s what happens when you sock it to the man I guess
And now it says 3 again… weird
Wow, based on your theory, the bigger the white, the bigger the penis, I’m cheering!!
I noticed that the PR was going down generally, but it seems that its nothing to really worry about.
The new PR seems to be an average figure from all the various Google Datacentres. The PR toolbar isn’t giving the whole answer.
For instance, youtube is actually an 8, but if have the datacentres are not replying, then the PR goes down.
Gratisguidance is still at a 4, but with an average, it gets knocked down to 3.8 average, which becomes a 3 on the toolbar.
Just put something more worthwhile on your site, and it will get more visitors – which is really the most important thing – PR has always really been a bit of an ego trip!
Honestly, I’m just glad I have a PR of 3 since before I only had a PR of 1. It’s interesting though that like you, one of my sites has PR 3 now even though it’s Alexa rank is through the roof, really no links to it, etc etc etc
I wondered if it had something to do with all my sites being on the same IP, but I think Matt Cutts dispelled that rumor sometime ago. And btw, nice job on not hating the big G and PR because it “hates you”. That kind of hate just doesn’t get anything accomplished does it?
I used to have a PR of 3, and I used to think that was good
Now, I’m down to 2, and that’s weird, because I have more visitors & backlinks now than when they slapped me from 0 to 3…
My brand new dotcom still is on 0, which is reassuring in a way – I would have been seriously doubting their spiderthingy if they’d ranked that one…
Maybe they’re penalizing me for making a fiver on paid posting here and there – I don’t think I can be bothered to care much, being as important as a … community centre website… or something.
Lycos, was it???
Even i dropped from 4 to 3 . Earlier i used to have a PR 5 blog. Lets see how much it affects the traffic from search engines.
Googlies… hehehe. PR is becoming less and less important I think so I wouldn’t sweat it. Although I managed a PR4 for my new blog but I don’t have any Googlies to be kicked in!
Haha, it took nearly 30 comments but FINALLY somebody got the joke
So is there a method to the madness? My website doesn’t even have a pagerank yet.
But perhaps it will in the future. But is PageRank even relevant anymore? I read recently that it can be hacked so that no-name blogs can have a page rank of 10 show up on their page.
I’m a seo account manager for one of the top seo companies in the uk, page rank as mentioned doesn’t mean as much any more, as above for a few of my clients have seen traffic continue to rise despite PR going down. The page ranks that have risen are for sites who have had work done or received some quality links, so over all looks like a evening out of PR overall.