Google PageRank Updated!

Yes it’s true, Google Updated their PageRanks today and I am happy to say that This Lil Piglet went from a PagRank of 2 to a 3 out of 10.  No, this is not a huge change visually but if you know anything about Google PageRank, you know this is actually quite huge.  First of all, having a PageRank of higher than a 3 is harder to achieve than you think.  Not only are you competing with everyone in your niche, you are being judged on your SEO skills.  Part of what I do as a review and giveaway blogger is  build working relationships with companies or brands.  One of the main statistical ratings that these companies or brands specifically ask for or consider when deciding to work with a blogger is their Google PageRank.  Many larger companies or brands will not work bloggers with a PageRank of less than a 3.  This does not mean your blog is not of value, in fact in my opinion there are a lot more factors that should be considered than  a blogs GPR number alone.  This is not comforting to bloggers with a GPR of less than 3 but we are all confined to work with these rankings in order to move ahead.  Don’t get me wrong, this is not the only way; this is simply one of the main “better your blog” suggestions.

There are a few main factors when Google Ranks your blog (GPR):

1. Does your blog have unique original content? This means that the content you are posting on your blog isn’t posted anywhere else on the web.  Repeated articles or posts are one of the reasons Google will punish your GPR.
2. Do you articles include images? Without mentioning GPR, relevant images are super important on reader engagement alone.  Just think about it; if you are surfing the net and ten articles appear on the topic of choice but only 3 of those have interesting images on that search page, which are you most likely to click on? The ones with the pictures most likely.  I specifically search images only on Google and click through based on what comes up and I won’t even get into Pinterest or StumbleUpon to add fuel to the fire here. 😉  Google bots additionally check for images, if none are found, your GPR considers your site of less worth.  If some are found but they do not have alt tags (description tags, captions are not the same thing), it is said that your GPR is more likely to be decreased.  There are people on the fence about this one but ultimately, it does not hurt your GPR to have suitable alt tags on your images; if anything, it may improve your GPR.
3. Have you taken the time to add SEO to your blog?  Search Engine Optimizing your blog is a must to rank higher not just for GPR but with all rankings that really “matter”.  What Google bots look for when they scan your blog isn’t just the things mentioned here, it’s looking for keyword or phrase usage and meta tags.  Do you manually do this or do you use a plugin like Yoast to help you?  Repeated keywords aren’t always a good thing, too many any you may be punished as well.  Do your research on proper techniques of SEO and make it a point to use those skills in every blog post you push out.
4. Do you have paid links, posts or advertisements on your blog?  If so, have you made all of these links no-follow?  This is a big one and is a huge violation when it comes to Google TOS/Guidelines.  If your GPR is still at a N/A or zero and you are selling link space on your blog, this could be the reason.  If you do not have no-follow tags on your blog and are still receiving a decent GPR, you simply haven’t been caught yet and I suggest, as many other bloggers do, you get with the program before you lose your rank altogether and are forced to work extra hard at getting it back.  This does not mean you cannot sell advertising space or have paid links, this means that if you have been paid for such and it’s on your blog, you are required to include the no-follow tag to each of those links.  Failure to do so is a violation of Google TOS and anyone who notices this on your blog can report you.  If this happens or the Google bots figure you out, you will lose your GPR you worked so hard to achieve.  Yes, a lot of advertisers will not pay you for a link placement without a do-follow link and as tempting as the money might be now, in my opinion, it’s not worth taking the chance.  Crissy from DearCrissy wrote a great article on GPR and no-follow tags importance.