supper" <snacilbuperkcuf@itshopeless.org> wrote in message
news:MYWdnWYnMLtn4FHYnZ2dnUVZ_o6gnZ2d@bresnan.com. ..
>I do like Google in general. I like their
> search engine results and I love the free software (especially gwt)
> they've given us.
>
> But Page Rank does piss me off.
> Page rank is a filter that limits and effects our content.
> In other words, I don't like changing the way I would naturally
> say something (in writing) to some other form, simply to
> play keyword games. But we all do that (play keyword games)
> because it works.

No, we don't all do that. I haven't changed my natural way of writing, and
that's not how you get a good PageRank.

PageRank has to do with links. Where your site ranks in search results has
to do both with links and what's on your page.

For what it's worth, my primary website is PR6, interior pages are mostly 5
& 4. And I've never worried about keyword density. I do keep each webpage
focused on a single topic, and avoid wordy writing & long paragraphs. But
that's for the reader, not the search engines. (And, generally, what's good
for the reader/visitor is good for the search engines too.)

> I also don't like the way Page Rank is so heavily loaded toward
> top-level pages.

I don't believe that it is. Your internal linking scheme certainly has an
effect, however.

And, your homepage usually has the highest PR because it (generally) is the
most linked-to page on the site.

>I have a Page Rank 3 website (was four, for the last
> few years) that has an interactive forum that gets 30,000 sessions
> a week. That forum has a page rank of one, while the home page
> has a page rank of 3. The home page gets a tenth of the traffic the
> forum does. Many competing sites (to mine), with drastically fewer
> inbound links, have page rank 4. So I don't believe their algorithms
> are all that accurate.

It's not the number of links, it's their PR & relevance. For instance, I've
had brand-new sites (a month or two old) rank PR4 with just 1 or 2 links to
them. But those 1 or 2 links were from related PR5 pages.


> But my main beefs are the way page rank
> side effects dictate content and how page rank so drastically
> downgrades deep links, to pages that are often
> far more important (informationally) than the home page.
>

Your linking scheme should reflect the importance hierarchy of your pages if
you want most important pages to rank higher. Link to the most important
pages from your homepage.

And, try to get links from other sites to your interior pages; that will
a lot. Write good content that people will want to link to.

For instance, if a lot of forum members link to the forum, you'll likely see
its PR go up.

cheers ~
Denise