Google PageRank, We Barely Knew Thee

10-Point Metric Leaves the Power 150; Collective Intellect Doubles in Weight

Posted by Charlie Moran on 08.25.09 @ 05:01 PM

As we mentioned in the last post, we've been having issues with Google PageRank, and some blogs have been unfairly receiving zeroes from it lately. Today we fixed the problem by removing PageRank altogether.

Unfortunately, the method we were using to derive these scores no longer works, and we don't have a solution to make the metric worth keeping in. It's a shame, since, up until now, it's been one of the most dependable of the metrics, but it's obviously not fair to continue as-is. So we doubled the number of points we give to Collective Intellect -- to 20 -- which allowed us to continue grading everyone on a 150-point scale.

We can't rule out a re-appearance in the future -- if there's still a demand for it and we can get it working again -- but, for now, it doesn't look likely. We've also removed it from our pre-evaluation calculations as well. If you've applied in the last two weeks and think you were rejected in error because of PageRank, please feel free to resubmit whenever you'd like.

4 Comments

  By Calle | VILLA PARK, CA September 9, 2009 12:28:18 pm:

But when I go to collective intellect's site there appears to be no way to interact or submit your blog. Also, do they have a tracking widget to install on individual sites? Thanks!

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  By BrianUssery | Atlanta, GA September 10, 2009 02:16:43 pm:

I understand you're having problems with PageRank but I'm not sure removing it is the answer. I also don't think doubling Collective Intellect is the answer. For example, my blog's homepage has more PageRank than Collective Intellect's website homepage. Just my two cents..... :)

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  By paulmay | Austin, TX October 20, 2009 11:12:17 pm:

You should take a look at mozRank from SEOmoz...very good substitute for PageRank without all of the collection and reliability issues.

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  By douglaskarr | Indianapolis, IN November 16, 2009 12:00:14 am:

I think it's great that you removed Pagerank. Many blogs increase their pagerank simply by constraining the number of outbound links. As a blog on Marketing and Tech, I must supply links to a ton of different sites and tools - so I sacrifice pagerank along with it. I think it's a good move.

Curious, have you thought about inbound links from Google, though? Yahoo! inbound links are a bit sketchy and sometimes difficult to move. One thing that's actually hurt my site is that we had to change domain names - so I had to start from scratch with inbound links! I took the hit here and am coming back strong, though... in the top 100 again.

Appreciate all you guys are doing!
Doug

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