You may have noticed that Google traffic has dropped off in the last few months or maybe you have not. If you have, there’s a good explanation.
Reason #1: Google has made several updates to its algorithm during the last few months. These updates have altered the rankings in various ways, including those for long-tail searches.
Reason #2: Google has made major changes to the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) layout which makes it less likely that people will click on organic results, and more likely that they will click on ads, news, images, etc. If you look at the new SERP layout, it puts more emphasis on paid search then organic results.
Reason #3: Google’s trying an experimental layout of local SERPs. Some webmasters have reported a new experimental layout for Google’s regular keyword SERPs for local queries (for instance, queries for “[category name] [city name]”. Instead of embedding a “7-pack” of local results with map into the search results page, this new beta layout has the local listings sprinkled into the regular results of the page with the map located in the right sidebar and automatically staying within the visible portion of the window when the page is scrolled in the browser. Overall, it’s a pretty radical change that could make LOCAL search much more important and it pushes organic way down the page.
There are many webmasters that are waiting patiently for the next Google Pagerank update, which will be the first update since Caffeine rolled out. The last Google Pagerank update was on April 3, 2010.
I am not anticipating much of a change, but I am sure some people may get an eye opener on the next Pagerank update. No one knows what to expect in the next update, because of all the changes Google has made the last few months with Caffeine.
Pagerank is still important. It shows us how much authority our webpage’s have. If you’re looking to build a site to sell links, than PR matters, because advertisers make decisions based on Pagerank. As far as SERP goes, PR has little or no significance for SERP position.
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I am also a believer in the value of page ranks.
Andrew,
You are fast! I just published this article. I to believe in PR, but SERP is more important when it comes to traffic.
Thanks For Post
It’s a fluid game we play with page rank. I (and others I know) recently took a beating in Alex and have no idea what’s up with that.
Jonathan,
The only thing that counts is SERP! Alexa is a funny beast. Alexa is worthless when it comes to accuracy unless your within 100K.
I believe Good PR + Good contents can make better results.
Sujith,
You are absolutely correct. Content is king and has been since blogging was created.
PR is definitely important & I believe its one of the major factos affecting SERP. I am expecting a PR 3 (from PR2) in this update.
Thanks For Post
Soon Google will lose its authority amongst the world population as it is seen to be a promoter only of ads and sponsored results. People want fair, organic results in their searches, not poor websites which have paid to be at the top.
Your website looks new and just recently launched. It sounds hypocritical to me and Google will not lose its popularity, at least not in our life time.