Does Page Rank really have any impact on SERPs and SEO? I've been told no. And if so why?

Does Page Rank really have any impact on SERPs and SEO? I've been told no. And if so why?

I can say that it does because I've gone off and used my mad scientist brain to test, prod and delve and find out for myself. Sites with higher PR do, on balance, appear higher in the SERPs than lower PR sites. BUT, and like J-Lo, it's a big but...

 

People so often overlook the intricacies of RELEVANCE.

 

They run off getting links in from wherever they can (if they're lucky from trusted and relevant sites, but usually that goes out the window) and might well get a higher PR but they find that their site still isn't ranking higher for their keywords of choice because there's a mismatch between the relevance of their content, their inbound links and what people are actually searching for.

 

To rank highly for a particular search term a webpage needs to be:

 

1) the most RELEVANT to that search

2) trusted to be a good source dealing with that search term

 

What I've found is relevance is the most important factor. Lower PR sites easily out-position higher PR sites if they are more relevant but it is harder for a higher PR/ less relevant site. There is some blurring caused by the intricacies of how Google determines your relevance.

 

So, PR gives you a good indication of the potential of a webpage to be positioned well but it is relevance that unlocks that potential. It's my old example of a PR10 site about cats won't outrank a PR0 site about dogs on a search for dogs, but it will on a search for pets.

 

Makes sense really. My advice is first concentrate on quality content, relevance (optimising your onsite factors) then on marketing and only building links for real traffic according to a strong idea of your business - let the 'trust' come to you. Google says the same and it all comes from knowing your customers and having a solid business plan. No good chasing high positions in SERPs for things your customers don't search for or concentrating on phantom PR numbers.

 

Do it this way round and every effort you make helps you sell in itself as well as helping with SEO - there's no need to spend lots of effort or money on something just for a possible SEO effect.

Yes. It does mean something.

 

Little James

I think NO.

I think NO.

 

So you don't think that if a Page is deemed as highly relevant and Ranked accordingly it will have no relationship to a SERP based on 'that' keyword(s)...

 

Interesting.

 

Little James

My advice would be read the first reply very carefully, thats a good response. (and ignore the following 3 replies!)

 

I would just add that because PageRank is based on links, people tend to misconcieve that a website is ranking high because of its high PR. Actually, if you were to analyse those links for anchor text and relevance to the linked to page then you will find the reason why it is ranking well. In other words, a page that has high PR because it has strong links coming from unrelevant sources could easily be outranked by a page with lower PR, that has links coming from more relevant webpages and with good anchor text.

I say no. PR is just a indication for backlinks. It is not a big factor to determine SERP. I have read Google webmaster guideline thoroughly. Google says that they consider around 200 factors to determine SERP. So PR is just 1 out of 200. So why we bother to much about PR ?