Search Engines Daily

There is a Google Toolbar PageRank update happening right now. Even though the data, once it updates on the toolbar (an average of 4 updates a year) it is old and useless. However, every webmaster likes to see the green pixels move up for their sites and stress when they go down.

That’s just human nature.

One of the key components to PageRank is the number (and quality) of the incoming links to the individual pages of your site. And since Google updates their link data only 4 times a year, it is best to use Yahoo! Site Explorer to measure link data.

With that in mind, as I was checking all the major directories this morning, you have to wonder what is going on over at DMOZ as they have added over 600,000 backlinks in Yahoo! since October. They now sit at over 3 million backlinks. Basically that is a 25% increase in just three months. Hmmm. And I thought adding links too fast got you banned in Google.

Best of the Web lost 4,000 backlinks in Yahoo! during the same period and secondary directory Romow added 180,000 backlinks and passed the One Million backlink mark.

So it shouldn’t surprise many that that rare quick Toolbar PageRank Update (just 8 weeks after the last update) saw many directories rise or fall in PageRank.

Check your sites and start to track the number of backlinks in Yahoo! Site Explorer every 1-2 weeks and measure the changes. You should see consistent growth. Yes, there will be times where some backlinks will be “purged” from the system and you’ll go down, but the next check should see an increase. As you measure, the “peaks and valleys” should continually move upward.

Consistency is the key to keeping your position in the market.

And it looks like Google just adjusted the PageRank for dozens of directories since the last time they did it back in November. Most of the ones I monitor, if they changed, went down.