Without notice, Google appears to have rolled out an update that’s keeping third-party tools from displaying PageRank. Popular SEO aids such as SEOQuake and Alexa are showing N/A instead of proper PR values, leading SEO specialists across the globe to speculate that Google may have pulled the plug on the technology that propelled it to the top of the search industry.
Given no formal announcement from Google itself, rumors are spreading like wildfire all over the Internet. Perhaps the most convincing case brought up so far is that Google’s exclusivity period with the PR patent has expired. PageRank was set to be non-exclusive this year, while the patent will completely expire in 2017.
Despite its value diminishing greatly over the years, PageRank has played a major role in search engine optimization, being a metric indicative of how well a page is doing in terms of SEO. While other factors have overtaken PR in terms of determining which pages appear on search queries, it still is a basis for many SEO-related tasks, such as as link building.
For now, we can be certain that PR still does exist. The PR values are still there and viewable by Google’s official toolbar. One explanation for this could be Google has changed the way it’s broadcasting PR info and tools have to cope with the changes. However, there is also a possibility that Google is deliberately limiting access to PR data so that everyone will have to use its proprietary toolbar, which is currently free but may incur charges in the future.
Find out what to do after Page Rank, how to get strong back links “post page rank” & what the next ranking factor will be the standard.
