Question regarding Page Rank

[sweetpartners]

I own dating sites, some have page ranks and some do not. I notice alot of webmasters on linkspun exchange links with each other when they do not have a PR, if I exchange links with a webmaster that has PR0 and I also have PR0 will this damage Page Rank and will google take a dim view of this.

[Relentless]

visible PageRank matters less and less every day.
Read this thread all the way through, you may find it helpful.

http://www.linkspun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=124

[AmateurFlix]

here's another good read: http://www.sirgroane.net/google-page-rank/

[HowlingWulf]

I don't think even Google cares much about PageRank anymore.

[Relentless]

here's another good read: http://www.sirgroane.net/google-page-rank/

As that page states: Copyright Ian Rogers, 2002 onwards

What he is saying is outdated and applies much more to a system that *used to be* updated regularly and utilized by search engines with some degree of accuracy. 'Public' page rank has not been updated since 3/31/10 in any significant way and the last major dance before that was 12/31/09. Many webmasters unfortunately refuse to let go of page rank because it simplified things and allowed people to gauge the link weight of a site easily - which is exactly why search engines do not want to continue updating it. They don't want to make it easy for SEOs to sculpt their own SERPs.

Look up major terms like 'Porn' and many others, you will find plenty of PR0 sites listed in the top 20 for most terms. You will also find PR4 sites that hardly rank for anything other than their own domain name in searches. Some webmasters are now buying up sites with PR and no placements just to be able to sell links or trade links to unwitting buyers when they have no intention of updating those sites are improving them in any way. Since ranks aren't being regularly updated, a 'dead site' may hang onto its PR for months (or years) before it reverts but throw virtually no weight to anyone linked on them.

At best, PR now shows a site has been indexed at one time or another. There are many other much more important factors to consider when deciding on a trade. How often does the site update? Is the site content original? What is the likely page bounce rate? How many external links and internal links does the site have? Is the site error free and properly constructed? Is the site properly hosted?

If you are looking for any PR2 site and overlooking any PR0 site you are badly missing the point of what Google and others are doing these days. 2cents

[AmateurFlix]

Relentless, I mostly agree with that, and never have given much credence to the PR displayed publicly, even years ago when most people agreed it mattered.

The info on that page offers some insight into what external and internal linking structures might benefit a page. How or if that correlates to the PR displayed in a toolbar, doesn't seem very relevant to me.

[RickDiculous]

I hear people all over the place saying that Google PR isn't important, but nobody wants to trade their PR2 and up with my PR0s, even if my sites are good quality handwritten and updated regularly.

It will become not important when it disapears completely

[Relentless]

I hear people all over the place saying that Google PR isn't important, but nobody wants to trade their PR2 and up with my PR0s, even if my sites are good quality handwritten and updated regularly. It will become not important when it disapears completely

SEO has always been dominated by people who trade what is 'generally thought to be important but really isn't' for 'what is actually important but for whatever reason often gets overlooked.'

[__PMI__]

I take care on number of backlinks and the age of the site.

If I give a link from a 2 year old blog that has 1000+ backlinks, I can't accept link from a new blog that has only 20 backlinks.

PR is the secondary criteria.

But hey, that's me

[dennyn]

I take care on number of backlinks and the age of the site.

If I give a link from a 2 year old blog that has 1000+ backlinks, I can't accept link from a new blog that has only 20 backlinks.

PR is the secondary criteria.

But hey, that's me

agreed

[12links]

It will become not important when it disappears completely

agreed.

[thelema]

Don't waste your time with PageRank. Neither the firm at which I work nor any of the other top SEO companies even consider PageRank when working with clients.

[skyuen]

very useful thread, thx guys!