The Pursuit of Making Money OnlineGoogle PR and Alexa do not Equal Quality or Credibility.
Search June 23rd, 2007I’ve said it many times before and I’ll say it again, high Google PageRank and Alexa ratings don’t necessarily equal quality or credibility.
I’ve been lurking the webmaster forums lately and can’t help but notice that so many aspiring webmasters seem to confuse the fact that your Google PageRank and Alexa ratings can be gained by white hat techniques such as creating custom content, aesthetically pleasing web design (as well as functionality), and generally giving people something to bookmark and spread the word about.
Take a step back, stop focusing so much on paid links, directories, and follow tags. Granted, they all have their rightful place in the world of internet traffic and search engine optimization *but* when you are at square one, focus on the following three attributes and your website will be a success:
1. Custom content that absolutely pertains to your niche.
2. Create a web site that is pleasing to the eye and easy to navigate.
3. Give users something to bookmark, and give them a way to spread the word.
In the grand scheme of things, this thing of ours (a.k.a. the internet) is not very difficult. I truly believe that the difficulty has been blown out of proportion, and the ones giving advice are generally in no position to be doing so to begin with.
Share ThisPopularity: 4% [?]
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
June 27th, 2007 at 3:31 am
Hi Paul, I get a lot of people asking my about Google’s PageRank and how that translates into pounds & pence.
In terms of the regular business websites of my clients, it’s value is in terms of visibility, so there is value.
For regular websites, there’s not nearly the amount same amount of content churn or external linkage as a ‘blog, so off-line advertising forms the main driver for their in-bound traffic.
But for those that offer a service which would benefit from some form of on-line advertising, then having a better than average PR and good spot on Alexa opens doors.
While both you & I might not ordinarily think too much in either, they along with Technorati form a metric which some advertisers will use to measure a website or ‘blog by as a pre-qualifier.
So in that sense, yes, both PageRank and Alexa matter…
June 27th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Wayne,
Thanks for the comment, and I do agree with what you’ve said. I know plenty of marketers and internet real estate owners who mention Alexa this and PR that but I feel that so many forget about how those ratings can be skewed and temporarily spiked for sale.
There certainly is value, you are 100% correct, and this post wasn’t aimed at webmasters like yourself :). This particular post was aimed at those who spend their days (or nights) submitting to every free directory they can find, and link exchanging with everyone that they can instead of creating quality content that will keep visitors coming back and increase the viral spread.
I probably should have entitled this post something like “…does not equal instant credibility” or “focus on the content and ease of use”.
Thanks again for your comment, it’s much appreciated!