Panicked the last time you saw the toolbar PR go gray? Don’t worry too much about what you might have done wrong because until now what the graybar really exactly means is still unclear. According to Ann Smarty of Search Enging Journal though some of the things that we do know about the graybar includes the following facts:

Whatever the graybar really does mean Google still hasn’t cleared it up but what’s important is that if you do see the TBPR turn gray just do a quick review on the latest changes you’ve made to your site and assess whether some of the tactics you’ve employed are questionable. Check the usual things that could have gone wrong like being hacked/spammed. If everything’s as it should be then there’s no reason to panic, more likely than not the TBPR will eventually just go back to showing your old PR. We all know that Google constantly tweaks its algorithm so you’ll just have to ride out the changes they might have made.

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Seo Roundtable recently did a poll on “artificial pagerank” and found out that 54% of the 153 SEOs that participated in the survey do believe in its existence. But what is artificial pagerank exactly?

Artificial pagerank is simply a boost in pagerank given by Google to pages to certain pages that do not seem to merit the high ranking due to the (few) number of links. SEO Roundtable became interested in finding out people’s opinion about the issue due to a discussion in Webmasterworld where someone reported having a website that had a PR jump from 4 to 5 even with only one low value inbound link (PR 0). Interestingly other SEOs have come across the same thing with some other pages. Of course, this lead to different theories pointing to the possible reasons for increase in PR including a faulty PR toolbar, Google not showing all incoming links, etc. What stuck the most, since they did make sense are these two replies:

Tedster: My assumption is that this unusual PR boost is one of the ways that Google helps “mom and pop” sites compete - something that Matt Cutts made a side comment about on his blog a few years ago. He never said WHAT Google does specifically, only that they do a few things. Now if we only knew how they identify a “mom and pop”, eh?

Ankit Maheshwari: Was thinking that Google might have started to give higher PR on local parameters. So in place of calculating the importance of a page globally, it has started doing it region-wise. IMO, this might be the next big change that Google might be testing, i.e to have higher PR sites within Geo-specific niches as well that might not be linked by million other sites, however within there niche/region/location are linked by most.

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Learn a lesson from big brands. That’s how I view the recent changes in Google’s ranking algorithm that resulted in more branded sites appearing among the top results in Google’s SERPs.

Though it might appear that Google is biased towards branding the good performance of these sites carrying brands is actually the result of the quality of the site’s content. After all they are the pages that are able to deliver the search users the results that they need, and Google is all about giving users the best results possible. As Matt Cutts said in his You Tube video, “I don’t think of it as putting more weight on brands. We really don’t think about ‘brands’ in Search Quality that much. It’s not that we try to always return brands. We try to return whatever we think the best results are for users…we think a lot about trust, reputation, authority, PageRank.” It just so happens that creating a brand is also about the same things: trust, reputation and authority. Established brands even before they went online already tackled the three issues to get where they are. This is what you should do and the pagerank will follow.

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Just recently, one of my blogger friends asked me again about how to remove the no-follow attribute in her blog comments. She read about the “do follow” movement and wanted to be part of that. That got me to reading up on new developments with regard to no follow and do follow…

I found an interesting article at Econsultancy, which promotes the use of the no follow attribute as part of your SEO best practices. Naturally, being a do follow enthusiast, I had to read the whole article in an effort to understand the rationale behind the statement. This is what I found out:

While the concept of ‘PageRank leak’ - the idea that you can potentially ‘dilute’ your PageRank by linking out too much - has been widely debated for years, there’s no doubt that good linking practices are important to maintaining PageRank.

Linking to third party websites that Google thinks are ’spammy’ can harm you. As Google itself advises, “avoid links to web spammers or ‘bad neighborhoods’ on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.”

This is where using the ‘nofollow’ attribute on outbound links can be a valuable SEO tool.

One of my personal blogs has had no PR for months now – after having a halfway decent PR of 3. Perhaps I am leaking out PageRank because of not using the no follow attribute. I should take a look into this. Maybe you should, too.

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Did you like those two simple SEO tips from Richard Burckhardt? Well, there is a lot more where they came from. I hope I can share more than two tips in this post – we’ll see.

Don’t be obsessed with PageRank. It is just one isty bitsy part of the ranking algorithm. A site with lower PR can actually outrank one with a higher PR.

This one I really have to internalize. I know, in theory, that there is more to life than PR. However, it is hard when you see your already not-so-good PR of 3 slip down to a worse 2. Still, I think that this tip is a good reminder – let’s not be so focused on PR. It is not everything!

If your site content doesn’t change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.

Search engines like unique content that is also quality content. There can be a difference between unique content and quality content. Make sure your content is both.

Here it is again – content. If your web site is not the kind that needs new content on a regular basis, there is always blogging to help.

SEO is not a one-shot process. The search landscape changes daily, so expect to work on your optimization daily.

This is another good reminder. SEO takes time, it is not a one shot deal.

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In my quest to learn more about optimizing blogs and web sites, I have noticed many recurring patterns.  One of them is the idea of buying links.  I have received lots of advertisements offering thousands of links for less than a hundred dollars.

On the surface, the idea seems to be a very good one.  You only need to shell out a relatively small amount of money and you will get a lot of links just like that.  You do not have to surf, you do not have to network.  Then again, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is, right?

In this case, the “too good to be true” part is highlighted mainly because of how Google treats paid links:

This is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results.

Examples of link schemes can include:
•    Links intended to manipulate PageRank
•    Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
•    Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (”Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)
•    Buying or selling links that pass PageRank

Take note of that last point.  Google does frown upon this practice.  More so, Google looks not only on the quantity of links but on the quality as well.

Have you been tempted to purchase one of those link schemes where they guarantee a thousand links for $50?  If so, then you might want to think about it.  It might not be worth it in the end – especially if Google finds out and penalizes your site.

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I never really thought about it, but it seems that you can fake PageRanks.  Now why would you want to do that?  I can think of many different reasons but here is one of the most pressing ones.

I am sure that you have heard of people buying up domains and the reselling them for greater value later on down the road.  These people are speculators, always on the look out for potential money makers.  It is actually brilliant but not always a good thing for those who would need the domains later on.

Anyhow, one of the most important factors that domain buyers take into consideration is the current PageRank of the domain.  If you have ever tried buying an existing domain, you would understand that one of the main reasons you would want to do so is that the PR is already decent.  It would save you months of work and money as opposed to starting from scratch.

It makes perfect sense – unless the PR is fake.  Yup, there are ways and means by which people can make the PR look good when in reality, there is no PR.  Since that is not a matter of importance to us – creating fake PR – let’s not dwell on it.  Instead, let us see how we can determine if the PR is legit.

I do not have much experience in this matter but I ran across a Fake PageRank checker tool.  The URL is http://www.seologs.com/pr-check/pagerank.html.  You can try it out yourself.

Do you know of any other way to determine the legitimacy of PR?

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Comments are a blogger’s best friend – well, among many other things. We have been focusing on increasing Page Rank in the past several posts. However, as many of my friends online have pointed out, commenting can bring about more benefits than Page Rank. Google’s PR does have its value, but it would be good to not lose sight of the bigger picture because of it.

So what can we do with comments? Let us look at the situation from the other perspective – us bloggers commenting on other blogs. As I pointed out in the previous post, we love receiving comments but may be a bit lax when it comes to dishing out comments.

However, when we comment on other blogs, we take advantage of the chance of making new friends. This, in turn, can translate into attracting more traffic to our own blog or web site. Real traffic is something that also takes some time to build up. It depends on many factors, delivering quality content being one of them. Once you have this down pat, you still need to let the world know that your blog or web site exists. This is where commenting comes in.

I call this technique the “manual” way. That is, instead of depending on SEO professionals and techniques alone, you do your own advertising by visiting as many relevant blogs as you can and leaving quality comments as well. Remember, spamming is not the idea here. You are leaving comments because you want other people to become interested in your blog, to visit it, and to become returning visitors.

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Bloggers love comments – receiving them, that is. In fact, I would go as far as to say that most bloggers aim to get as many comments as they can possibly get. However, the opposite is not always the case. What I mean is that even if everyone wants to receive comments, not everyone likes taking the time to leave their comments in other people’s blogs.

What if I told you that you can actually use commenting to create links to your own blog or web site and, hopefully, increase your PR. This can be done by leaving your comments on other blogs and indicating your URL in the appropriate field. However, you have to note that this will not ALWAYS generate links to your blog. How so?

There are different ways by which blog owners manage comments. The Page Rank Guide summarizes them neatly.

1. Blogs that use comment moderation and “rel=nofollow”
2. Blogs that use no comment moderation and “rel=nofollow”
3. Blogs that use comment moderation and links follow
4. Blogs that use no comment moderation and links follow

The first two methods will not do much good for you in terms of links. This is because the “no follow” command means that even if you place your URL in your comment, the link will not point to your site. So before you go on a commenting frenzy, remember that the blog you should comment on has be a “do follow” one.

More so, make sure that you will not end up being a spam commenter. Make sure your comments make sense and are relevant to the topic of the post.

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In the previous post, we focused on directory submissions in order to gain links to your site. Logic tells us that this is one of the most effective ways you can get links but as I mentioned, it could be quite tedious, especially since there are countless directories online.

Another way by which you can increase links to your site is to join forums. More than joining, though, you have to actively participate in discussions. The idea is that each time you post something in a forum, you can include your signature at the end – of course, the signature being a link to your web site or your blog URL. It is much like leaving your business card everywhere you go – you leave a trail behind you by which people can find you.

A very important thing to bear in mind when taking this route is to choose forums that are related to the content of your web site or blog. For example, if your web site is all about politics, it wouldn’t seem quite right to post in a forum about online dating and promote your site there, would it? For blogs – especially those of the personal kind, which can cover a wide range of topics – it is much easier as there are more choices as to what forums you can join.

More than creating links to your web site or blog, participating in forums actually help you established and build up your web presence. By making others know of your existence, you make them aware of your site as well. The more people that know about your site, the better your web presence will be.

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