Why Toolbar PageRank is Worthless

Soooo, a few readers asked me why I don't use PageRank as a statistic.

I thought about writing a long, angry, ranty post about Toolbar PageRank, bank bailouts and the moron on NPR today who said the USA has reduced its carbon emissions since 2000, etc. etc. but stopped myself.

Instead, I've got a nice clean list of well thought-out reasons:

1. Toolbar PageRank does not equal true PageRank. Toolbar PageRank tries to distill this humungous, universe-encompassing scoring system (true PageRank) into a 0-10 scale. Imagine buying a house based on a photo of a 1ft by 1ft square of green grass. Same thing.
2. It updates infrequently. Actually, it updates slightly more often than the Department of Homeland Security's threat system ('High' since 2003, I think).
3. Toolbar PageRank ignores onsite factors. OK, that may be an exaggeration. But that little green bar has little to do with relevance, and a lot to do with authority. It leaves out half of the SEO equation.
4. It makes you focus on the stupid. Toolbar PageRank ignores your traffic, your sales, conversion rates, visit quality and the key phrases actually sending traffic your way. Aside from that and its total inaccuracy, it's perfecto.
5. Back in 2008, Steve Reubel said that PageRank is the ultimate metric. He's also heralded the death of SEO at least three times. It's like a zombie movie, where the government tells everyone to go gather in a football stadium. Run. The other. Way.

So, if you want to slip on the proverbial banana peel. Otherwise, avoid PageRank and use some more reliable SEO metrics, k?

By the way, I wrote about PageRank and it's utter worthlessness in 2006, too. I also wrote a more succinct post on the subject in 2009.

Blatant plugs, and such

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conversationmarketing/MRJI/~3/MoJJvTnR6Ek/toolbar-pagerank-worthless-2010.htm

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