Fact: High Google PageRank does not directly guarantee good search engine placement.  Although PageRank does factor into the SEO equation, page relevance, good quality content and links are the essential factors of a well balanced SEO campaign. For example, I’ve seen relatively new websites with no PageRank perform better in the search engine rankings than websites with a supposed PageRank of 4.

For the SEO geeks like me, the discussion and speculation can be seen as nothing more than inside baseball. Many SEO firms tout that increasing a site’s PageRank is the end-all and be-all to search engine optimization, but in my experience this is not the case.  Leading people this way I guess makes SEO more mystical and easier to sell, but it takes the focus away from the fundamentals of a good SEO campaign. In my opinion, having been inside the game for more than 10 years, placing a high emphasis on creating a high PageRank just for the sake of doing so really amounts to nothing.

Why? Because:

1. PageRank can be falsified with clever redirection techniques.  I have seen domains for sale with a PageRank of 6 only to find out that the PageRank was actually a 0.  How do I know that?  I was the purchaser of such a domain.
2. PageRank can be manipulated by those who overuse no-follow tags within a website. Google is rewriting its algorithm to address such abuses.
3. As soon as you think you have it figured out, Google without notice changes the parameters of the playing field and the rules of the game.
4. Focusing on just one aspect of your SEO campaign can actually make your site look unnatural. I have seen Google time and time again give websites “a haircut” (lopping off PageRank numbers) after a PageRank update.
5. It can take four to five months for a Google PageRank to update, so it really isn’t a good measure of the quality of your current SEO campaign.
6. It pits your site against the Google algorithm.  I caution and tell clients all the time that they are not competing with Google to get PageRank, but instead are competing with their rivals. SEO efforts should focus on outpacing your competitors on a keyword-by-keyword basis.  For example, I have seen certain SEO strategies work well for one keyword and not work so well for others.

So your best course of action is to focus on the fundamentals of SEO. I have learned that if you focus on the fundamentals of your search engine placement, then your Google PageRank will increase over time naturally.

These fundamentals include:

1. Well written content that’s written for your audience and centered on your keyword market focus
2. Congruent meta information, which is in alignment with your written content
3. External, contextual and editorial links to pages throughout your site
4. Balanced internal link flow within the website
5. Increased exposure and brand identity through every Internet marketing means possible, including but not limited to blogging, article submissions, video, press releases, etc.

To put it another way, a well optimized website arises when the market focuses of your content, meta tag information, external and internal links are in alignment with one another. Then and only then do you have an optimized website. If you make these element your focus, and not simply PageRank, then a quality PageRank will follow.

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Special thanks to Bruce Westbrook for editing this blog post.