The recent Toolbar RageRank update once again has generated a lot of discussion in the SEO community. Webmasters report their websites receiving not much more traffic despite the increased visible PageRank. In numerous forum threads people question the reliability of toolbar values. By unveiling the following five myths I hope to answer to some of the uncertainties caused by this update.

1. PageRank values range from 0 to 10.

While some people believe that PageRank is an integer number or at least converge to an integer after intensive recursive calculations, actually it is a floating point number. Google rounds up the real value to the closest integer and puts it on the 0-10 scale which is displayed in your browser toolbar.

2. PageRank value displayed in the toolbar is the one used to rank the results.

As you might have noticed, the toolbar value is updated every few months with no regular intervals. In the present time Google continuously calculates and updates PageRank so that sometimes actual PageRank and its toolbar values can differ. The toolbar value should be considered not as a current rank but as a level your page has reached by the time of the latest toolbar update.

3. PageRank is the primary factor to rank the search results.

Not exactly. PageRank was the backbone of the Google success as a search engine because of its integrity, ability to use the unique democratic nature of the web and hyperlinks, and relatively high immunity to abuse. But as years passed the Google technology became far more sophisticated. Now Google uses a cloud of factors to rank its search results. Some of them are query specific (keyword saturation of the page copy and the backlinks’anchor text) and some of them are domain specific (domain age, keywords in domain name, and of course PageRank). Nobody outside the Google’s offices knows the actual weight of each factor and it is quite possible that PageRank is no longer the primary one.

4. Google toolbar shows an increase of PageRank for my pages. My traffic is going to skyrocket!

Wrong. There won’t be any sudden traffic increase after toolbar upgrades any more. As I said before, the continuous calculation and update of the Google’s internal PageRank means that the rankings also adjust gradually as your pages get or lose backlinks. So the toolbar upgrade itself will not cause any changes in search results.

5. Toolbar PageRank is of no use, it is just for entertainment.

This is allegedly a quote by one of the Google representatives. This is only partially true. The reason why Google doesn’t show the actual PageRank any more is that there have been repeated attempts by hackers to access an exploit these data. Since 2004 the toolbar values updates are no longer synchronized with the actual rankings changes, and therefore should not to be considered too seriously in terms of SEO. However toolbar ranks still remains the easiest and most obvious way to evaluate the quality of a page and millions of web users regularly judge websites according to what Google toolbar shows them.

Originally Published at http://www.seoresearcher.com/the-5-myths-of-google-pagerank.htm

One obvious question that may pop up from some marketers not familiar with article marketing is, “Should I do it for the traffic or for the PageRank?”

My answer to that question is the proverbial, “It depends.” The key is to not get too shortsighted and it’s easy to do that when you focus on PageRank.

For example, there are some successful article directories now that people submit their articles to primarily as a way to gain PageRank.

The idea is to submit to these directories because the directories themselves have high PageRank and the link in your article resource box will transfer the benefits of that PageRank to your website. That’s not really a good plan.

For one thing, if the article directory has a PageRank of 6 then one article is not going to transfer a PageRank 6 benefit to you. You will have to share that PR 6 with every article marketer submitting articles that article directory.

One rule of thumb is, the higher the PR of the article directory then the more people will be submitting articles to them, which means you are sharing a PR 6 with more people as opposed to a PR 4 with fewer.

You might actually be getting less benefit from that than submitting to a site with lower PR. The best way to make that strategy work is to submit a lot of articles so that you can aggregate the total benefits of article submission. Again, that is a shortsighted approach and it could backfire in a number of ways.

Some article directories are now including nofollow tags on all of their article pages. That means if you do submit your articles to those directories then you won’t get any PageRank benefit from the directory at all. But that doesn’t mean there is no benefit to be gained from those articles at all.

Why You Submit To Article Directories

The real reason you want to submit your articles to article directories is not so that you can benefit from the traffic or PageRank of the article directory.

The idea is to have your articles published in e-zines, on websites, and blogs owned by someone in your niche who is not associated with the article directory.

For example, let’s say you own a nutrition supplement store. You write health articles. If another website owner in your niche reads your articles and likes them then they are likely to publish your articles on their website and in their e-zine.

That results in a link back to your website from another website within your niche. That publication then will transfer the benefits that you want to your website and is the real reason you submit articles to directories.

OK, So Is Traffic Or PageRank The Real Benefit I’m Looking For?

The answer is both. You want more traffic to your website because traffic means more opportunities to sell your product.

You want higher PageRank because higher PageRank means more trust with the search engines and that means more trust with your target audience.

But how do you achieve high PageRank?

A higher PageRank is achieved by relevant sites linking back to yours. Sites within your niche are relevant. The links from those sites are high value links.

The higher the PageRank of the site linking to yours, the more benefit you’ll get from the links from that site.

It all boils down to reputation. Think about hundreds of those high value, relevant links pointing back to your website. That is the reason for article marketing.

It’s a long-term strategy and shortsightedness on the way that you approach it will only kill any benefits that you might have received.

Due to Google’s recent Page Rank update, some people might feel like bench warmers because they saw their Page Rank fall.

If you found yourself in this situation you might find it useful to know that articles can boost your Page Rank. So you can actually prepare for the next Page Rank update by implementing your article marketing strategy right now.

Articles affect Page Rank in two important ways. First, a little about what Page Rank is:

Google instituted Page Rank in 1988 to measure website trust. Google’s philosophy of linking is that website owners link to other websites because they like them and trust them.

Google decided to make inbound link quality a major factor in determining Page Rank. But they also look at on-page factors as well. If your outbound links and internal links are relevant and not broken then you build trust for your Page Rank score as well.

So what are the two ways that articles build trust? By providing website owners ways to build quality inbound links to their website and by giving website owners useful content to put on their websites that will build trust.

Here’s how it works: You write an article and submit it to several article directories. Those article directories are not your primary target. You want publishers related to your niche to pick up your article and publish it – on their website, their blog, in their newsletter, and wherever you might find targeted traffic related to your niche.

Every time one of these related website owners or publishers uses your article you get an inbound link from a relevant website. That is a trust building factor.

If you put your articles on your own website then you also encourage people to link to you because if your article is worthy anything – that is, it provides valuable content – then people related to your website will want to link to it. That’s another trust building factor.

Your article content itself is useful in building trust among your target audience. It also helps with branding and reputation management. The more articles that are out there on the web with your name on it the better, (as long as the articles are well-written and informative to readers).

People want to know that you are well-informed about your topic if they are going to do business with you. Great articles that help people learn more about your topic is one of the best ways to show that you are an expert on your topic.

Poorly written articles on the other hand can damage your reputation. Don’t buy cheap content like PLR articles if you really want to boost your reputation online.

Don’t buy content for your articles from freelancer websites where people promise to write your articles for an unbelievably low price either. If it sounds too good to be true you know it is.

Well-written articles on your topic can be written by you personally or you can hire a real ghostwriter to write them for you. But quality costs more. Average prices for well-written articles vary from around $20 per article to over $100 per article.

When choosing a content provider, search for their name in Google. Look over the articles they put their own name on. Judge the quality from that, not from what they say on their website.

Article marketing works. It drives traffic, builds trust for your website, and can be used to increase your Page Rank. All it takes is a little hard work, a good strategy, and the drive to pursue it.