Most writers, bloggers, and site owners are obsessed with their Google page SEO ranking. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to know your site’s page ranking, and it’s always important to consciously produce content worthy of a good ranking. But obsessing about page rank has little value.
There are a variety of ways to improve a page’s ranking, but you should remember that Google considers over 200 factors when ranking a page. PageRank is only one measure of a page’s search engine optimization worth.
Susan Moskwa, a Google employee, explains that “We’ve been telling people for a long time that they shouldn’t focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it’s the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true.”
In SEO, there are two far more critical methods of assessing page value and maximizing revenue.
What is SERP
The search engine results page (SERP), is a list of relevant links a person sees when they type a query into a search engine. Being at the top of the SERPs is the best way to drive traffic to a webpage. But a high SERP ranking is not necessarily the same as a high Google PageRank. Remember that PageRank is only concerned with incoming links, not with content.
When you perform an Internet search, the page with the most relevant and well-researched keywords will appear at the top of the SERP. This is regardless of its page ranking. Of course, PageRank and search engine results pages still interact. Between two equally relevant pages, the one with a higher page ranking will appear first.
Page Rank and AdSense Earnings
Another important measure of SEO success is revenue from AdSense or other pay per click SEO programs. Essentially, more traffic means bigger revenue. These pay per click programs are virtually unaffected by page rank. A high Google PageRank, however, does not guarantee a high volume of traffic, neither does it guarantee more AdSense revenue. SEO writers and bloggers should be more concerned about sudden drops in traffic than they are about fluctuations in Google PageRank.
Conclusion
So does page rank matter? The point of page ranking is for Google to determine the credibility or value of Internet web pages. A high search engine ranking is nice, but it certainly isn’t the most important measure of SEO success. Content owners should keep apprised of their PageRank. But above all, they need to concentrate on their position in the SERPs. They also need to monitor their AdSense revenue.
