How can you tell if an elephant has been in your fridge?

Marjory Meechan - May 7, 2007

The Google pagerank update is on! Or, is it? Starting around the 26th of April (or even earlier), reports started to arise in the forums that the Google was updating the pagerank values on their toolbar display. However, as late as last Friday, there had been no confirmation from Google and some Google watchers expressed doubt that the pagerank update was finished.

Did you see a sudden drop in page ranking and you’re wondering if it was something you did? Well, maybe but it could also be something that Google did and it could have happened anytime in the last three months. You could have been blissfully contemplating your pagerank of 7 when it really fell two months ago and you are just finding out now. What does this mean for the average site owner who’s wondering what to do about the fact that the little green Google page rank toolbar is now showing a lower number? Well, nothing, really. Google’s pagerank values are constantly being updated. We just don’t get any glimpses of what they are until the update.

In fact, even when it’s current, the value displayed on that little green toolbar is an extremely crude version of the real number – a long multi-digit number between 0 and 1 that indicates the probability that your site will be found in any random search of the internet. This probability is computed based on the number of other sites that link to your site because, all other marketing aside, that’s how anyone — spiders included – find websites and that’s really what it’s all about.

So, what should you do? Well, if you are worried about pagerank, the best thing to do is to implement a link building program. Morevisibility’s linkmaster, David Tischler has given us many useful link building tips over the last few months and if you’re a client, you’ve been getting some great link building suggestions every month. Put aside a few minutes every week to work on the inbound links to your site and in time you will see better results. It’s not quick and it’s not easy, but it will work and the sooner you start, the sooner you will see the results.

How can you tell if an elephant has been in the fridge? You can see his footprints in the butter. Just like that elephant in the fridge, the only way to know that Google’s been updating the pagerank is to look for their footprints. Just don’t obsess about it. Take action and build those links and remember, the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Bon Appetit!