PageRank Update

PageRank Update = public update of the (formerly visible) Google PageRank. Today there is no more Toolbar PageRank; internally, Google still evaluates links, but for SEO, quality, relevance, and user signals are particularly important.

The PageRank Update refers to the update of a value for web pages introduced by the search engine Google. Specifically, the PageRank Update refers to the public update of the PageRank, as internally the value of web pages is updated much more frequently.

Definition PageRank and the "Regularity" of the Updates

Until a few years ago, it was considered an important value for a website. Webmasters could read the PageRank, or PR for short, of their own and other websites via a browser plug-in. This was represented in the form of a green bar that increased with the value of the website. Behind the PageRank, developed by Google's co-founder Larry Page, is an algorithm that evaluates websites based on their links. The more links pointed to a website, the higher the PR – even better if the links came from websites with equally high PR.

Although the significance of PageRank for ranking within the SEO industry is now considered outdated, the value is still important—especially for the Googlebot that crawls websites. This is because the PR indicates the time spent by the Googlebot. Subpages with a lower PageRank were therefore not frequently or extensively visited by the Googlebot.

Google conducts a PageRank update only a few times a year, which is also public for webmasters. In 2012, four updates were published, but in 2013 there were only two. For 2014, webmasters are still waiting for an update. Google seems to be releasing the updates of its value more and more irregularly. However, it can be assumed that the value is updated internally much more regularly.

PageRank vs. Visibility

One must be careful with the distinction between PageRank and the visibility of a page, as the terms do not mean the same thing. PageRank refers to the discoverability of a website, visibility to its visibility. While PR is determined for a specific keyword, visibility refers to the visibility of a site across all keywords. Both values play a role for companies in terms of visitor numbers and revenues.

The Toolbar PageRank

The so-called Toolbar PageRank is visible in the Google Toolbar, which can also be used in browsers like Firefox or Microsoft Edge. The PR is displayed there and it also correlates with the actual value. However, there are slight delays in the display—it took up to four months for an updated PR to be shown.

What happens after a PageRank update?

A PageRank update often causes confusion in the SEO community. It is not uncommon to see significant jumps in PR or websites with new and good backlinks losing value. For this reason, it is sometimes difficult to understand what changes the algorithm brings with the latest PageRank update. It also often happens that only specific areas of a website are updated – for example, only homepages, only subpages, or only certain specific web pages. The new PR can usually only be clearly read after a few days.

Meaning nowadays

The last PageRank update took place ten years ago and announced the end of it. However, the end of the PR update does not mean that Google does not still use it internally when ranking a page.

In the meantime, there are a variety of user signals sent to Google, based on which a page rises or falls in ranking in the SERPs. Therefore, PR has probably also become obsolete. Nowadays, PR should no longer be used as the most important feature for evaluating a page. In the end, PR doesn't say anything about whether a page has original and unique content or offers a good user experience.