PageRank update
A PageRank update was the public update of the PageRank value that Google displayed for web pages. Internally, Google recalculated PageRank continuously; externally, however, the new value only became visible with these updates, which took place a few times a year. Since 2016, there has been no public PageRank – and therefore no PageRank updates either.
PageRank and the “regularity” of updates
For a long time, PageRank (PR) was considered the most important value for a website's strength. Website owners could read it via the Google Toolbar in their browser: as a green bar with a value from 0 to 10. Behind PageRank, named after Google co-founder Larry Page, is an algorithm that evaluates pages based on their links. The more links point to a page – and the stronger the linking pages themselves are – the higher its PageRank.
Because the value was publicly visible, it quickly became the currency of the link trade: links from pages with high PageRank were bought and sold. This is exactly what Google didn't want to encourage.
Public updates therefore became increasingly rare: in 2012 there were still several, in 2013 only two, the last in December 2013. After that, the displayed value remained unchanged. In 2016, Google finally removed PageRank from the toolbar completely and stopped displaying it publicly.
PageRank vs. visibility
PageRank and visibility don't mean the same thing. PageRank evaluated an individual page based on its links, independently of specific search terms. Visibility, as calculated by SEO tools in the form of a visibility index, on the other hand, measures how present a website is in Google results across many search terms. Visibility is much more meaningful for visitor numbers and revenue.
Toolbar PageRank
The value displayed in the Google Toolbar was a highly simplified, rounded representation of the internal PageRank and was only updated with the public updates. There were therefore often months between Google's actual evaluation and the displayed value.
What happened after a PageRank update?
PageRank updates regularly caused excitement in the SEO industry. Some websites rose significantly, others lost value despite new backlinks. Sometimes only individual areas were updated, such as homepages or certain websites, so the new state was only clear after a few days. Direct conclusions about rankings could hardly be drawn anyway, as PageRank was only one of many factors.
Significance today
The end of the public updates didn't mean the end of the PageRank principle. Google continues to evaluate links; internal documents that became public in 2024 mention several variants of PageRank.
In addition, Google now takes a multitude of other signals into account – from the quality and expertise of content and user experience to user behaviour in the search results. Instead of a PageRank value, SEOs today use metrics from SEO tools such as Domain Rating or Authority Score that replicate the principle. What remains crucial: a link value says nothing about whether a page offers helpful content and a good user experience.