Google Pagerank Update December 2013 – Did Your PR Went Down?

Google silently updated their Page Rank Algorithm today (06/12/2013). Being the second update in this year, Google made sure the Page Rank system doesn’t add much value to their ranking system now. It’s all about Social engagement, Page Authority and quality content. This Page Rank update might disappoint a lot of bloggers and SEO’s, as their rankings will go down massively. Google repeatedly keep saying that Page Rank doesn’t add much value to the search engine ranking factors now. Despite this many people keep building the Page Rank for their blogs and websites. This is quite against Google, as they don’t want any one to manipulate their search engines.

The recent comments by Matt Cutts tell us that Page Rank will not be updated till next year (2014). But just like every single time, Matt’s wisdom and analysis fail alerting the bloggers. This might be unexpected, but Google still doesn’t want to give any explanations on what basis they have updated the page rank algorithm.

Why Google Decreased Your Page Rank in December 2013 Update?

If you find your blog PR has been demoted, then consider you might fall under the following categories.

• Getting backlinks from fake PR sites
• De-indexing and Demoting high PR links via Google Disavow Tool.
• Removing blogroll links and friends URL’s from sidebar and footers.
• Selling PR articles in your blog to earn money.
• Some one reporting your site to be spam and selling do-follow links.
• Sending too many do-follow links from your site and receiving less from other sites.
• Concentrating on quality rather than quantity of links pointing to your site.
• Focusing more on Page Authority and less on number of backlinks. (Good)
• Getting PR links from low PR sites.
• Not frequently updating your site with content that gets you backlinks.
• Focusing on getting too many nofollow links via comments, forum postings, directories and etc.
• Dropping backlinks from other sites by requesting them to remove.
• Sites which have PR 4 will come down to PR 3, 2 and 1 as that sites will lose the page ranks too.
• Getting a backlink from low PR page, instead of high PR domain. (Each page has a separate PR, always get from high PR pages)
• Updates like Penguin will not allow you to get high PR links, which will decrease your site PR too.

Why SEOSiren.com Lost PR 4 to PR 1?

Knowing the future of Pagerank in Google, I personally started concentrating on Page Authority and Domain Authority. Last year when I started blogging on SEOSiren, my PR went up from 0 to 4 in just 3 months. This was obvious, as I got high PR backlinks from top quality blogs in the past. Since I started to concentrate more on SEO Services, rather than blogging, my PR will automatically come down with time. Currently I post only 2 articles per month, which sometimes have even less than 1.

I removed and deindexed some high PR domain links in the past, as they were not valuable to my niche anyhow. Meanwhile the traffic, leads and rankings are still the same. Only affect is with PR, which will be taken care by Page authority in future from now.

I observed all my clients website PR’s went up and down, as we built some high quality links and deindexed some bad quality links from directories and bookmarks. The amazing part is all their rankings, traffic and leads went up exponentially.

I Lost My Site PR, What to Do Now?

If you are a blogger or an SEO guy, then don’t worry about the Page Rank now. Concentrate on providing quality content to the user, which will get you amazing traffic and leads. Google will obviously not like to promote spam pages and websites which sell links in their search engines. They updated a certain PR algorithm where the Page rank doesn’t exceed more than 4 with some parameters in place. You have to do something extraordinary to reach that dream figure of PR 5, 6 and 7.

Your content has to be extremely good and get natural backlinks from other top class websites. Consider getting backlinks only from high PR sites like 5, 6 and 7. This will help you in increasing your Domain authority, and thus your traffic and rankings.

Don’t get demotivated with this PR update, as there are couple of more coming up by next year. All you have  to focus is quality content, social engagement, trust and likability.

Expert Opinion on PR Update:

The latest PR update is a killer! Literally. Unlike what Matt Cutts said to expect a PR update not before 2014, this update must have taken everyone by surprise. As I see updates on social media channels and monitoring my client blogs & websites, Google has mostly downgraded the PR’s this time. Personally, I feel this is the after-effect of the Hummingbird update. This had to happen. Rather than tormenting yourself over lost PR’s, start monitoring keyword rankings, traffic volume and do a link detox, if necessary. Build a brand, not a PR-based website. A lot of bloggers create website to build a PR-based revenue model. However, if you know your SEO basics right, this is a redundant concept now. Get over the PR mania! Focus on creating interactive content and a brand, not just another blog!

– Chitraparna Sinha (www.socialvani.com)

Meanwhile our other websites like CoolPCTips.com have PR 5 from past 3 years, and it continuous to go because of its quality backlinks and content. Also our new technology site Techsiren.com got PR 3 from PR N/A with just 8 articles in place. Remember that if you are focusing on quality content and leads, you shouldn’t bother about the page rank updates. Hope this article helps you to add some value to your blog and their readers. Please share your valuable suggestions in the below comment section. Your experience will definitely help other to strive towards success.