What on earth is this thing called Pagerank?? (PR)

Ok so you have just bought a domain whether it be an expired domain you picked up from the dropped list or bought from one of the auction process’s or maybe it is a newly registered GTLD…Now though you want to start building your online business and drive traffic to your website and you have heard that it is important that you have a good Page Rank with Google.. But really what does this mean? And why should you care?

The higher the better…

The first thing you really need to know in regards to PageRank is that it is measured on a scale of 0-9 with 9 being the highest and really only achieved by the internet Goliaths of the likes of Facebook and Amazon. A really good PR that SEO experts would claim is reachable for any successful online business is really rated somewhere between 4-6 with anything less being regarded as needing work and anything more as a sign of an astronomically successful website with millions of visits on a daily basis…

How is it calculated?

The Google Page Rank is 1 algorithm of approximately 200 metrics that is used to establish a website’s authenticity and authority, many people would argue that it is the most important of all the metrics as it was one of the first if not the first.. It basically evaluates the number, quality and relevancy of the websites that have links to your site. The basic premise behind this equation being if people of authority on your website’s subject matter choose to promote your site by having links on their website there is no greater nod to your domain’s relevancy and content than by someone else voluntarily choosing to promote it on their website.

When looking to buy expired domains that have high Page Rank typically you will find domain names that were historically tied to websites that were reference based – think medical websites- hobbies like gardening or cooking always do well. It would also be wise to make sure the links to your chosen domain are not all just to landing pages and reference other pages deep link building is extremely important when maintaining your Google Page Rank.

Truth or Myth..?

Ok so now we have looked at how and possibly why websites with a high Pagerank are good and in the expired domains industry why they carry a perceived value and increased price tag. But now I ask myself does it still carry as much weight and importance in 2014 as it did lets say 5 years ago? Firstly confession time my own domain http://www.expired-domains.co carries a Google Page Rank of a big fat 0 !!! But yet my site consistently sits around page 3 on search on my top targeted keywords and by concentrating on content and developing a social presence I have seen a steady increase in organic traffic but still my Page Rank taunts me in the right hand corner of my Google Chrome bar and refuses to budge.. And I don’t think I am alone, by doing a quick analysis on different keywords I see many websites that rank high in search but have low to no Page Rank so what does all of this mean?

Those other Giants are catching up…

In the days when Google Pagerank ruled above everything else the likes of Facebook and Twitter and content search were a mere glimmer in the rearview mirror of Larry Page’s Google and long before our business’s could be easily run through our phones. Rich link building was the king of content validation and formed an intricate interwoven online community where experts shared knowledge..

Fast forward a few years and doesn’t this sound familiar but something most of us do now thorough our chosen social forum Google +, Twitter and Facebook. We tweet, tweet, tweet, all day long, we add status updates that include links to our sites and our blogs and now we can even run advertising campaigns that easily rival those we can do through Google’s Adwords. To top all of this up it appears all our hard work building these social communities are starting to pay off – traffic through search via a social network is up considerably versus 2013 and is expected to grow significantly year on year over the next 5 years.

Google’s next move and why I still want to move my Pagerank up from 0

So Google get it they understand the relevancy of online social networking that is why they introduced the sometimes cumbersome Google + and is why they modified the other metrics to increase the weighting for domains which have a heavy social presence. Social traffic really can mean quality traffic, in most cases these guys haven’t accidently stumbled across your site they have been referred there or they regularly follow you or have friended, you the 2014 equivalent to giving out your email address..But where does all this leave the founder of online networking Pagerank ?

It really hasn’t lost its importance or relevance – remember linking is truly the backbone of the world wide web without these links it may just all fall apart..? It’s just that other factors have also become prevalent. Social links and backlinks now live alongside each other in the Google metrics and so they should. I will continue to stare at my Google Pagerank venomously but will work my hardest at building credibility and being a part of my sites online community until further notice..

For the full list of today’s expired domains, pre release auction domains and thousands of high quality dropped domains please go http://www.expired-domains.co.

Clare Coggins

clare@expired-domains.co