Does Page Rank Matter Anymore? Alternatives to Google Page Rank

If you are a blogger or website owner, you probably know already what PR (Page Rank) is.

Every blogger or webmaster aims or dreams of having a blog/ website with a high PR.

The higher, the better infact!!

Most of them resort to nefarious link building methods and use expensive automated softwares which promise to help them get the desired results. Often with disastrous results.

But the question we are raising here today is: DOES THE PAGE RANK MATTER ANYMORE??

What is Page Rank?

What does the Page Rank (PR) of a website or blog actually denote?

What does it mean?

What is its significance?

In simple words, PR denotes the relevance or importance of a website or blog across the web by measuring the number of sites linking to that particular site or blog.

So, essentially a site having a higher Page Rank has more authority and credibility.

Search engines believe that the sites having higher PR are more trustworthy and deserve to be ranked on the top of their rankings.

Not always. But surely most of the time.

Though the number of links pointing to a site is one of the MOST IMPORTANT parameters that search engines consider while deciding to rank websites or blogs, is certainly is not the ONLY one.

Let us not forget that there are more than 200 other factors that search engines take into account to rank a particular post in their results.

Therefore, Page Rank is just ONE of the several factors that determine the rankings in search engines. Also, these factors are updated every once in a while and are made strong factors.

So it would not be wrong to say that the importance of Page Rank is decreasing day by day.

Higher Page Rank usually means higher traffic but since the use of social media is at its peak these days and most smart website owners know how to use social media and other tools to divert traffic to their websites, Page Rank is not the ONLY factor that can help bring a large volume of traffic.

If you have a high level of social interaction, you can easily get substantial traffic even without a high page rank.

You could also use email marketing to help you get more visitors to your website, further undermining the role or importance of higher page rank.

It goes without saying that “Content is the king”. If you start providing quality content, you will automatically be re-visited no matter how bad your link building is or how low your page rank is.

A low page rank does not come in your way of earning money as well.

You don’t need to have a high page rank for any of the monetization methods like Google Adsense, Yahoo Media.net ads, CPM networks, infolinks, affiliate marketing, etc. to be able to generate revenue for you.

Infact, most of them will not even ask you about your page rank or look it up at all if you comply with basic policies like original content, no porn, no gambling, child abuse, not promoting violence, etc.

The main thing advertisers need is daily visitors. If you can show them that you have a healthy number of visitors, you can easily get the advertisements on your sites even if you do not have a good Page Rank.

Thus, it can be concluded that Page Rank does not hinder your money making ability.

All said and done, a higher Page Rank DOES help attract more advertisers inspite of the fact that it is not the SOLE factor that shows that you are performing well.

Without a good Page Rank, you will not get guest/paid posts. This is one thing that truly has no alternative.

Why is Page Rank Losing Popularity?

Page Rank denotes certain things and having a high Page Rank certainly does help.

The blogging and internet world is evolving very rapidly. Faster now than ever before.

As a result, alternatives to Page Rank are being developed.

Though Page Rank might not be ignored completely, alternatives are being suggested already.

Domain authority (DA) is becoming more and more popular as a measure of the quality of content, popularity and authority wielded by a website or a blogger.

There are many other reasons people these days do not take Page Rank seriously. Some of them are:

• Very Infrequent and Unpredictable Updates

When was the last time you had a Page Rank Update for your website? The last we had it was in February 2013. That is more than 6 months now!!

Worse still is the fact that none of us knows when the next update will be.

People need fast results and Google Page Rank, unfortunately, hasn’t been able to provide that.

There are so many things going on. You, being a website owner, have to take prompt decisions. And if you wait for Page Rank updates to take decisions, you will have to certainly wait a lot.

• Unclear Page Rank Principles

Ever since the concept of Page Rank was developed, Google NEVER clearly stated what it is and how it works.

If people knew more about it or knew which of the 200 parameters is more important to Google while deciding the Page Rank for a website, we would probably regard it more highly.

At best, Google only leaves us guessing as to what is important and what is not?

What practices are ethical and what are ‘black hat’?

What will be rewarded and what will be penalized?

This only leaves all webmasters more confused and perplexed every time, in the absence of a clearly defined and easily understandable policy.

Now, that is both frustrating and disheartening.

Without clearly knowing WHAT Page Rank is, how can one think of improving or doing things the right way?

Alternatives to Google Page Rank

Page Rank is not everything and it has been proved.

If you have a Low PR, you can still:

· Drive a lot of traffic

· Earn lot of money.

· Earn recognition & fame.

· Be among the most favorite websites.

That implies you can command respect within the blogging community and continue to perform well (while earning) even if you have a Page Rank ZERO.

In a way, Page Rank does not matter AT ALL.
Though it would be great to have a high Page Rank, let us not forget that not being able to get a good page rank is not the end-of-the-world!!

There are other things which are far more important that just being able to get a high Google Page Rank.

Page Rank Advantages	Alternatives
Fast indexing	Frequent posting can help you get indexed fast.
More Comments/interaction	If you have unique and impressive content, you can easily get more comments and have interaction on your site.
Good for advertising	Good Alexa Rank, DA, PA and stats of daily visitors can help you easily get advertisement.
Search Engine Rankings	There are other 200 factors that determine search engine rankings.
More PR= More traffic	More interaction in social media, unique and impressive content can help you drive traffic.
Guest/paid posts	( No solid alternative)

Conclusion:

All that I would like to say towards the end is that though having a high Page Rank does give you a certain edge over other websites and blogs which have a lower PR than you, moving on to a higher PR is not and should not be treated as the PRIMARY objective of a blogger or website owner.

It is great to have a good Page Rank but one should not forget that there are a lot many more things to worry about too.

People need to realize that ONLY a high Page Rank will not help get them more recognition or get to the top of search engine rankings. To get to the top, you need to have unique and original content with a fresh perspective.

Instead of wasting precious working hours fretting over getting more backlinks to your site in the elusive pursuit of a higher page rank, focusing on creating well researched and quality content will undoubtedly help you get better results over a period of time.