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PageRank Evolution and SERP Rankings Analyzed - Evaluating a Statistical Study ::
SEO News Source: http://fantomaster.com
Published: Nov 17, 2007 - 08:07 pm
Story Found By: fantomaster 1653 Days ago
Category: SEO
It’s been a long standing assertion amongst the A-list members of the SEO community that PageRank does not equate with ranking: Too many low PR sites hitting top spots in the SERPs, outdoing their high PR competitors, it’s really hard to come to any different conclusion. However, now there’s a statistical study determining PR evolution in the Google SERPs over the past 6 months and analyzing the correlation between PR and rankings, offering some interesting conclusions.
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from rotatedspectrum 1652 Days ago #
Votes: 1

Good stuff.It’s late and my eyes aren’t focusing too well on my macbook but did it say that a page that ranks #1 in the SERPs has it’s PR reduced on a monthly basis?or did I read it wrong?

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from iBrian 1652 Days ago #
Votes: 5

"for one it would have been nice if the paper had indicated how many sites and SERPs were analyzed"Doesn’t this pretty much suggest a flawed approach? After all, if you have no idea of your basic data points, how can anyone else determine mathematical significant relationships?Leaving the audience as unable to verify the statements and conclusions founding the study.

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from Halfdeck 1652 Days ago #
Votes: 1

Interesting study, though its validity relies on a metric with a great margin of error. Also as Ralph points out, toolbar PageRank is not PageRank."Google may want to see a correlation between PR and SERP rank being established"Perhaps. Then again, PR obsession leads to more link swaps and link buys - in other words, more weeds in Google’s backyard."Given the strong correlation Rank/Pagerank (see above), those who lost may worry. Because this Pagerank loss will surely be accompanied by a ranking loss in the Google SERP and then by a web traffic loss."Recent TBPR drops will not be accompanied by a ranking loss simply because the TBPR on penalized sites no longer even remotely reflect real internal PageRanks. If the real PageRank was exported to andybeard.eu, for example, the site’s home page would likely show TBPR 6.

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from massa 1652 Days ago #
Votes: 2

after careful consideration of the analytical elucidation offered by the illustrious Mr. F, I find the most logical course for myself would be to enlist the assistance of someone who could explain the explanation to me.:(

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from fantomaster 1652 Days ago #
Votes: 1

@rotatedspectrum: Not as categorically as you’re puttin it, but essentially yes, that’s what this study indicates.@iBrian: Yes, it’s more than a minor fly in the ointment. However, that is data which could easily be furnished yet by the author(s) of that paper. (In the e-mail pointing me to it, peer comments were specifically requested, so maybe our q&d analysis will help in establishing a reasonable level of verifiability.@Halfdeck: Google may quite likely see itself falling victim to the infamous Law of Unintended Consequences with their TBPR policy. And while TBPR has undoubtedly spawned the link-for-PR industry, it’s not as if paid links as such hadn’t been around long before PR was invented.As for what may or may not constitute "real PageRank", that’s only for Google (or, more probably: a tiny fraction of their specialist staff) to actually know.@massa: LOL - remember we put up a warning in that piece?

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