I started blogging back in March of 2010. My readership started at 1 visit per day (and stayed at 1 for a little while, I am so loyal!), until I started ‘learning the ropes’ of blogging.
Two hundred plus posts and many new visitors later, Google Page Rank feels my website is as meaningless now as it was 8 months ago. Meaning, I started with a Google Page Rank of 0, and I still have a page rank of 0.
So what is Page Rank and why should I care about it? Well, Page Rank is a method that search engines (and advertisers) use to measure the importance of a website, based on links to that website. The more important a site is, the higher the site will appear in search results. In other words, high page rank = more traffic and possibly more advertising dollars. The scale for Page Rank is from 0 to 10, with 10 being the best, and incredibly hard to attain.
Is my Google PageRank truly 0? No, I don’t think so, even though it may appear that way to the outside world. I believe Google uses its own internal method to determine a web site’s value and ranks it accordingly. What is interesting is it appears that Google Page Rank is fading away, and even Google itself tells people to not put much stock in the page rank number. Page Rank is no longer a part of Google Webmaster Tools, and Google has not done a major update to Page Rank in ages. However, much of the internet world has not acknowledged that pagerank has basically become a thing of the past, and should be replaced by another method of measurement.
What IS a fantastic ranking tool, and is actually updated regularly, is Moz Rank. MozRank was created by SEO Moz, and it also uses a 0 to 10 scale to rank websites just like Google PageRank. Finding out the Moz Rank for a website is easy. Just go to Website Grader and type in the name of the website to get a report card, which provides a Moz Rank value along with other valuable information like a Twitter Grade and more. (Make sure you include the ‘www’ if it is part of the website domain name.) You can also download a Moz Rank toolbar for your computer and Analyze any page you are on. However, it does require a SEO Moz account be setup before you can download the toolbar. Overall, I have found information provided by the website grader tool to be very valuable when looking for ways to improve the metrics for my website.
Readers, have you been frustrated with the lack of updates from Google on PageRank? What do you think of Moz Rank? I find it interesting that my Google PageRank is still 0, yet I have watched my Moz Rank grow over time, and it is now a 5. Can we possibly start a movement to get more people to regard MOZ Rank instead of PageRank? I often wonder why the web community does not already use Moz Rank as the default tool to evaluate a website. After all, doesn’t it make more sense to use a ‘grading’ tool that is updated regularly, as opposed to one whose results are based on very old data, like Google’s PageRank is?
If you would like to read other articles regarding the MozRank/PageRank debate, check out these posts:
Budgeting In the Fun Stuff: MozRank – The Preferred Ranking System
Buy Like Buffett: Page Rank Schmage Rank
Faithful With A Few: Mozrank: The Reliable Alternative to PageRank
Invest It Wisely: How MozRank is Filling the Gaping Hole Left By the Departure of Page Rank
Raven: Goodbye PageRank, Hello mozRank
Saving Money Today: The Death of Google PageRank
Barb Friedberg Personal Finance: Mozrank, Competition & Links
Funny About Money: MozRank, Is This The New Pagerank?
Money Green Life: Mozrank is the new Pagerank
Simplie Stacie: Bye Bye Google Pagerank, Hello MozRank
The College Investor: How Google Violates its Own Corporate Philosophy and How it Hurts the Little Guy
Sweep Tight: MozRank – Finally an Alternative to Google Page Rank!
Lindsay Blogs, Move Over PageRank, mozRank Is Here!
{ 62 comments… read them below or add one }
With Google de-emphasizing PageRank, MozRank is becoming the defacto gauge. At least till people figure out what it takes to game MozRank!
But for now, MozRank gives a pretty decent picture of a sites stats. Hope they continue to maintain the quality of their ranking algorithm.
Moneycone recently posted..What Can 100-000-000-000 Buy You
Moneycone, I am sure that Moz loves that Google has all but given up on Pagerank. It is a perfect opportunity for them to sweep in and take over, which should motivate them to perform frequent updates and such.
My grades are still pretty sad…
Website Grade 88
Moz Rank n/a
Google Indexed Pages 189
Traffic Rank 220,815
Blog Grade 14
Inbound Links 1,616
del.icio.us Bookmarks N/A
RB40- Your site is still quite new. There are a couple changes you could make that would help your score. I know one thing they regard highly is to have over a year left on your webhosting contract. They love to think you will be around awhile. Plus, they do like having that contact form on your website somewhere.
Keep on doing what you are doing and you will be doing great in no time!
Hey RetireByForty, don’t get too hung up on this! If it makes you feel better, here’s a story. Long before I knew much about SEOs, I had my first site which was like a directory of other sites. And within months, this site went to PR4! I wasn’t even trying! At that time I didn’t know what exactly PRs were; read about it, checked the PR and realized that it was a big deal! (Of course Google wizened up and PR is back to 0!
)
You write good stuff. Keep doing that and you won’t have to worry about this.
Moneycone recently posted..What Can 100-000-000-000 Buy You
You are very right Moneycone! I can see why bloggers do burn out and quit easily, it is because it can be hard to get ‘positive reinforcement’. First off, traffic is almost nothing, then page rank and other measuring tools hate your site because it isn’t old enough. You just feel like you will never get anywhere.
But, you can’t give in! Time really does help. Of course, I am no expert as I am only 8 months old, but I do know what it is like to have traffic under 10 visitors!
Great post and good discussion. The best ranking system is one that actually updates and has growing authority. As such, if Google doesn’t ever publicly update anymore, then mozRank will continue to be the default ranking to go with!
Cheers
Yakezie recently posted..The Storyteller And Content Generation Ideas
It is interesting that Google does not have to be accountable for updating a system that, over time, became the ‘gold standard’ for rating websites. Well, now it is more like the ‘tin standard’ since they don’t seem to make updates anymore.
Interestingly, mozRank appears to be the new gold standard, but enough people don’t know it yet.
“I am so loyal” LOL! Awesome line!
Yakezie recently posted..The Storyteller And Content Generation Ideas
Well, I am my own biggest fan…
Thanks for sharing this, Kris. People think I am being “dissed” by Google because PR is 0, so what Google is actually doing by NOT updating our PageRanks is lumping us in the same category as spammers and other unscrupulous Internet bottom feeders! That is not very nice. I thought Google’s mantra was to “do no evil” …
Kevin@InvestItWisely recently posted..Weekend Reading- Thanksgiving Edition
Kevin, you have an excellent site, and you definitely deserve a good page rank as your readership has increased dramatically. I am not a spammer either, and I am scrupulous most of the time.
It is indeed frustrating to be ‘unfairly punished’ and not have any control over it. Blogging gurus say to keep producing good content and create a ‘community’ with your blog and everything will fall in to place. Well, with the hold that Google has on page rank, the gurus may have to revise their advice to include “and hope that either Google updates page rank, or drops out of the ‘external’ page ranking business altogether”.
From a monetization standpoint, I can definitely understand why moving Moz Rank would be even more beneficial to new bloggers or recently penalized bloggers. Thank you so much for writing your perspective about this. Clearly, Google has made its point to webmasters by not doing a full update on pagerank since April 20, but as you mentioned in forums a little while ago, advertisers act blissfully ignorant of pagerank’s present inaccuracy.
Roshawn @ Watson Inc recently posted..The Rich Get Richer
Shawn, the monetization aspect is definitely frustrating. What else bothers me is just my credibility in the writing world. If I want to submit a post or something to another site, I am probably not very appealing if my page rank is 0.
Kris, I’m not sure what sites you are talking about, but I haven’t heard of credibility being diminished because of pagerank. I’m not being dismissive to the idea as much as I think that many of the sites that most bloggers submit to are very familiar with bloggers without any pagerank wanting to post to their sites partly for the pagerank boost. Nonetheless, anything is possible, but anyone who would presume that a blogger has less credibility solely because of low/no pagerank is seriously small-minded.
Roshawn @ Watson Inc recently posted..The Rich Get Richer
Shawn, I have not actually tried submitting a post to an external site I am not ‘familiar’ with, but since advertisers and such dismiss those with a page rank of 0, then I guess I was just assuming that others may also.
Kris, I don’t think these other sites really care about page rank as a gauge of credibility. It could become an issue if they think a site is in a “bad neighborhood” because of no/low page rank. Then, they may be scared to link to the site without precaution. Otherwise, I think it would be fine IMHO.
Roshawn @ Watson Inc recently posted..The Rich Get Richer
This is good info! Thanks!
Heather recently posted..other people’s handiwork
This is great info, thank you!
I have had one of my sites up and running for 10 years and it still has a page ranking of 0. I have been guilty of ‘build it and they will come’ but still, it was discouraging for me to see no PR year after year.
My newest site is unranked and is a blog-based platform. This time around I’ve been doing more SEO work on it. Glad I read your post so that I do not have inflated expectations about google!
Great site by the way!
Deidre
Hi Deirdre- thanks for visiting!
Wow, ten years for a website, that is impressive. Ten years ago, I don’t know if I had even heard of a blog. Of course, I had a bunch of small kids then, so I pretty much just knew about making snacks and doing laundry.
Come back and let us know how it is going! I would be curious to see if SEO is making a different for you!
Kris…
Yes, SEO has made a huge difference in traffic results for the new site but I was starting from square one on that
Not sure that Google cares but at least when I check my stats I am hopeful! I too used to check my PR every day hoping for more LOL.
One of these days I am going to restructure and do an overhaul on the other site.
Deidre @ hcgdynamics.com recently posted..HCG Results
Deidre – You should just take a day and redo the old site. You will love to have that off your mind!
Kris…you are right about it being off my mind
) But it would take me more than a day to do since I just have no idea how I want to reconfigure it (static vs blog style platform). If you are interested, I could send you the link privately if you want to check it out…I didn’t want to just type it in the post out of respect and all 
Its ‘ok’ as is but could be much better!
Deidre @ hcgdynamics.com recently posted..Protein Shake and HCG Plans
Hey Deidre, go ahead and put it in the comment or email it to kris at everydaytipsandthoughts dot com
I will probably start planning the renovation soon. I have about 3 more large projects planned for my health website and then I can work in the other one
I experimented with CSS last year on it but its time for another new facelift LOL. Thanks for checking it out!
http://www.transformx.com
Hi Deidre, I have been swamped today, I will take a peek tomorrow!
Hi Everyday, Thanks for the informative article. With a Moz Rank of 4, Google 0, and Alexa of 109k, I definitely prefer moz to google pr. Although it is annoying not to have a google pr, I believe that over time, the metrics will sort themselves out. But in the meantime, writing about moz rank is IMPORTANT! Thanks Barb
Hi Barb! It is very frustrating. I used to excitedly check in the morning to see if page rank was updated, but I have long-since given up that hope.
All we can do is publicize mozRank as much as possible and hope the web world realizes that page rank is outdated, at least how it exists today.
This was interesting:
Goodbye PageRank, hello mozRank http://raventools.com/blog/goodbye-pagerank-hello-mozrank/ #Yakezie #Pagerank #Mozrank
Kevin@InvestItWisely recently posted..Weekend Reading- Thanksgiving Edition
Thanks for letting us know Kevin! I updated my post to include this information!
Cool. Will check that one out too.
Yakezie recently posted..The Storyteller And Content Generation Ideas
I think the Google page rank is also based on how old your domain is. Since you started less than a year ago, it probably isn’t ranking you as high as you should be based on your traffic.
As for the MoZRank, I don’t know much about this ranking structure. In the end, I don’t really think it matters what page rank any company tells you your website is; what matters most is that your readership is growing. And it is definitely growing! Keep up the terrific posts!
Little House- I do like that my readership is growing, but a lot of it is because of search engine traffic. (Which is why Google obviously has an internal algorithm for ‘ranking’ a page.) I know BFS is just a month older than me, but she was able to get page rank back in April. Murphy’s Law I guess, they decide to not update just when I might actually qualify for some page rank!
Thanks so much for the kind words. I hope your new place is working out real well.
Thank you Kris and thanks again Kevin for posting this information about Website Grader. The analysis delivered by the tool spurred me to make some overdue changes to the website.
Andrew @ 101 Centavos recently posted..A Panhandling Story
Andrew, the website made me get my act together on some things too, like reaching out more on Twitter and such. I know that my domain name is up in 14 months or so, so when it gets to a year, I will probably renew it so my grade stays decent. Hey, maybe they are in cahoots with the hosting companies!
Great writeup Kris!
Hopefully mozRank start catching on!
Money Reasons recently posted..Upgrading to a McMansion!
Thanks for participating in the Moz Rank Push, lol. You know I’m all for the death or PR for good.
We need to get more publicity somehow. I wonder if my PR 0 blog writeup will catch fire with Google search…
Great work with this post. I’m in the very same boat you are. After tons of posts, a solid readership, links to many highly trafficked sites, etc – my PR is the same as yours.
One would think that advertisers would quickly learn to incorporate new information or new tools to gauge websites as possible advertising channels.
Squirrelers recently posted..Thanksgiving Giveaway Contest Update- and Black Friday Recap
Squirrel- I totally think the advertisers LOVE that page rank hasn’t been updated. They can just keep paying lower advertising rates based on a nice low page rank!
Time for us to start pushing our MOZrank, alexa, Yakezie, etc… when they contact us, and to reject getting lowballed!
Kevin@InvestItWisely recently posted..Is Low Fat Yogurt Really That Good for You
PageRank is an algorithim google invented that assesses the strength of a website. The algorithim evaluates a site on a scale of n/a to 10 with 0 being the lowest/weakest and 10 being the highest/strongest. We can check our site’s rank by using a checker pagerank tool.
Sonia recently posted..Pagerank Checker
Very good thread. Really the information was quite useful
Svilen Petrov recently posted..WTS Permanent Blogposts on PR3 Cars website – 14 USD-post
I’ve heard from several sources that Google has not updated their Pagerank stats since last April. If this is true, how can anyone consider PR any kind of reliable measure of anything? I find using my own tools to track traffic (analytics, sitemeter) much more helpful at providing “feedback”.
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Maureen, you are entirely right. If page rank was some arbitrary measure that nobody relied on, I wouldn’t care. However, advertisers and everyone else seems to view page rank as the gold standard of popularity. Not to mention it works in their favor if page rank stays low so they don’t have to pay as much in advertising fees.
Drives me crazy.
Please see my post of Moz Rank here: http://stillblondeafteralltheseyears.com/2010/12/mozrank-website-grader-the-new-alternative-to-google-pagerank/
I want to be part of the REVOLUTION but we must educate Public Relations and Advertisers. They don’t understand this switch at all and people who used to have High Page Ranks don’t want anyone to know!
Still blonde after all these YEARS! recently posted..MOZRANK WEBSITE GRADER The New Alternative to Google PageRank
I recently wrote about mozRank too and want to educate people that Google PR is not the one to watch anymore. You don’t how many times I have been turned away and told I suck because my lack of PR. All because I switched to my own domain in May! Here’s my post I wrote about it: http://simplystacie.net/bye-bye-google-page-rank-hello-mozrank/
I am also trying to get other sites to spread the word about mozRank and am hosting a giveaway this month for a free ad spot on my site. I invite you to come and link up. http://simplystacie.net/advertising-giveaway-win-1-month-ad-spot-on-simply-stacie/
The link you have given on the fifth para is wrong (http://http//websitegrader.com/ instead of http://websitegrader.com. Doesn’t matter as it is a typographical error.
About the content part it is worth to read. Thanks.
Thank you! It is all fixed now!
I think that because of the popularity of Google, pagerank will still be one of the parameters used in measuring the value of a website. Google controls the search engines. google determines pagerank. Pagerank can increase web traffic and therefore increase income from the site. Money is what every website buyer will be interested in. Therefore a site with good pagerank has more value to every potential buyer.
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I guess it depends on if Google ever updates page rank again or not. It is obvious they have their own internal page rank. But if they don’t ever update the external page rank, advertisers may move over to Moz rank as they really do want to spend their advertising dollars wisely.
Hi,
You pagerank is zero as mine even i have solid visits but its only because i and you have new site and 100% our sites are Sandboxed at google. Check something about Sandbox google
By: http://www.luxuryhomegate.com
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Hi
Searching on page rank and Moz to see if any connection (came up on page1 !)
Very relieved to have found your post. I suspected something was weird as I suddenly went to Moz3 and still on PR0 which seems a little wonky to say the least as there ought to be some sort of relationship…..
Will be starting blogging soon too! nice to see someone else talk about how it was at first.
K.
Just recently I came to know the popularity of Moz Rank among Internet marketers. It seems Moz Rank is handy while calculating the total value of a website but still cannot avoid PR from my calculations. My mind is too much attached with Google PR and everyday I check Google Tool bar for any change in my website’s PR.
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Siju- considering how rarely Google updates their page rank, I am sure checking everyday can be somewhat disappointing! That is the very reason I personally don’t feel it is a very good indicator. Kind of like basing my plans for the day on a weather prediction from 3 months ago.
To measure value of a website, mozRank is the best idea.
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I’m going to have to try MozRank! I’ve surprisingly haven’t tried using it before.
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Sometimes, I am unsure if the Google PageRank can be trusted at all. It bounces most of the time.
I just wanna know which one is better???
I don’t know if one is better than the other. Many advertisers seems to acknowledge Page Rank currently because it is all they know. I think that MozRank is more accurate, but since I don’t see the actual algorithms, it is hard to know that for sure.
am sure that Moz loves that Google has all but given up on Pagerank. It is a perfect opportunity for them to sweep in and take over
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