Google October 2009 Toolbar PageRank Update

There seems to be a Google Toolbar PageRank update going on right now. We have threads on the topic at WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums and HighRankings Forum. The update seemed to have started sometime yesterday afternoon and many SEOs and webmasters are chatting about it now.

The last PageRank update prior to this one was in June 2009, which may have just been a technical quirk because the one prior to that was just a month before in May.

In any event, like I say every time:

Yes, a Toolbar PageRank update means nothing in terms of your ranking changing anytime soon. The PageRank scores shown in the toolbar are outdated and have zero direct impact on your Google rankings. That doesn't mean that PageRank has no influence, but the toolbar score does not have any influence. Google shows us one thing, but yet uses another thing.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums and HighRankings Forum.

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posted rustybrick in Google PageRank/SERP Updates at October 30, 2009 9:30 AM Comments (16)

Comments

Yes the update is happening. You are right of course, it doesn't mean anything unless you are selling/exchanging links.

Posted by Maya at October 30, 2009 10:13

No changes for my main site :(

Posted by Roseli A. Bakar at October 30, 2009 10:38

Selling or exchanging links is probably the only issue.

Posted by VT at October 30, 2009 10:48

So much for all the people hoping that the toolbar will go away, unless this is the last push.

Posted by Michael Martinez at October 30, 2009 13:28

"The PageRank scores shown in the toolbar are outdated and have zero direct impact on your Google rankings" If this is true how does a website that is recently(just 2months) published gets a PR3? PR may not have much influence in search engine rankings but Google itself says they consider PR as one of the major factor for their SERP's. If I am wrong please explain me in detail. Thanks.

Posted by Pradeep at October 30, 2009 13:36

Pradeep, I said "Toolbar" PageRank. Not PageRank. Toolbar PageRank. Two different things.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at October 30, 2009 13:37

Now I'm confused - what's the difference between Toolbar Pagerank and PageRank? Should they not be the same thing?

Posted by Bob in Sunny QLD at October 31, 2009 15:16

They are not the same thing.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at October 31, 2009 19:16

PageRank in its simplest sense (as per Sergey and Larry's thesis at Stanford) is the relative value of any single page on the internet in relation to every page on the internet. Toolbar PageRank is the pagerank score for any page (on a scale from 1-10) that is shown by google to the public in the google toolbar... For many years, there has been some question about the true relationship between real-time pagerank and toolbar pagerank, because at best, toolbar pagerank only shows the pagerank of a page as of the most recent toolbar pagerank export, which traditionally, google only does once every 3-4 months (give or take)... This most recent toolbar pagerank export/update, my site rose to a PR6, meaning that it's real pagerank the day/week before the update was undoubtedly PR6, however it showed in the toolbar as a PR5, because that's what it had the last update, months earlier... So at the very least, there is very often (especially with sites that are actively pursuing link popularity building) a significant difference between the actual real-time PageRank of any given page and the Toolbar PageRank of that page.

Posted by Bernie Grohsman at October 31, 2009 23:27

Hits on my site are up 1200% in 3 months, we are top of page 1 in google for most keywords but my google pagerank went down from 4 to 3! Can anyone explain?

Posted by Alison McGowan at November 1, 2009 05:21

awesome

Posted by rahul at November 2, 2009 07:46

@Alison McGowan:
I think I can explain.

Hits are up 1200% in 3 months --> this is traffic

you are top page 1 for the most keywords --> this is relevant

your google pagerank went down from 4 to 3 --> this is authority (basically, sites linking to you and the amount of "link juice" you get from them)

simple explanation: the three parameters are independent.

its far more complex than that but it should give you an idea of what happened.

My bet:
sites linking to yours have lost some authority, so yours too.

Posted by Alejandro Amo at November 2, 2009 14:13

I saw the changes starting to roll out as early as 10/28: http://twitter.com/audette/status/5233228707