I've been reading and reading and reading about Google and page rank and have not really come up with an answer to my (probably common) problem.

I have two sites that I just want up, functional, and findable:

joshcanhelp.com
gtmcbride.com

The sites are about the same age and about the same amount of content. They both are functioning as digital business cards for the time being. The problem is that both have a PR0 right now. I'm not looking to climb the ranks right now, I just want out of the "0" category.

Link-wise, the gtmcbride.com site is pretty slim (it's getting much better stats in Analytics though). For Joshcanhelp.com, I've done as much as I can:

- Squidoo pages linking to it (2 of them)
- Kudzu, Yellowpages.com, Yahoo businesses (local biz listing sites in the States)
- My PR2 blogspot site (joshisjosh.com)
- Facebook and Myspace links
- A few other various blogs, comments, and other forums

The most disconcerting is that a "link:joshcanhelp.com" pulls up nothing even with all those links (though even my blog only shows two).

The code is almost 100% validated (won't take the Google gadget on there), I'm not doing anything black-hat, I'm signed up with AdSense, I have a webmaster account, I have a sitemap submitted, I have robot.txt on there, and I give blood when I can!

What's a budding webmaster to do? Thanks in advance!

What would you rather to have PR0 or Visitors?







fastreplies

I would like visitors, of course but a PR0 limits that greatly, no?

I'm under the impression that a PR0 is just a temporary/negative condition for a website. If you're not doing anything wrong, everything is submitted properly, and you have some kind of content, the lowest Google Grade you get is PR1. I'm fine with PR1; I'm looking to avoid a penalty situation.

I'm also a big n00b and could, potentially, be massively misunderstanding the whole thing. I have pretty much read the whole internet, though, so there's that.

how new are they? Brand new sites will always have a PR0. PR won't go into effect until the next PR update. (Google PR usually updates every 3-4 months). If you want your PR to improve, concentrate on building backlinks.

Let me just say, build good content and people will link to your sites
and that as a bonus will give you better PR.

Simple formula that work like a charm




fastreplies

Originally Posted by Lpspider

how new are they? Brand new sites will always have a PR0. PR won't go into effect until the next PR update. (Google PR usually updates every 3-4 months). If you want your PR to improve, concentrate on building backlinks.

What Lpspider said. Google PageRank updates every few months. The current PageRank of any site isn't necessarily the "real" PageRank. In other words, it barely matters nowadays.

http://www.webmaster-talk.com/the-go...important.html

PR0 is not any kind of penalty

What's a budding webmaster to do

Turn OFF the PR display and never look at it again!

I suggest try to focus on traffics and good ranking position in the SE. You PR will grow on the process . . .

Originally Posted by chrishirst

Turn OFF the PR display and never look at it again!

This is the best solution

Originally Posted by chrishirst

Turn OFF the PR display and never look at it again!

I don't have the toolbar, I just check it on-line. Looks like thats the same thing

It's hard to just ignore Google's rating, especially if I have one that might be hindering how my results show up.

Regardless of the page rank, I am definitely concentrating on backlinks and content. I've read enough to know that's the only thing to help your results. I just want to make sure I'm not missing something.

Thanks for all the reinforcement.... I thought I was doing it right and it's nice to know that I am (with the exception of stressing over PR of course).

BTW, someone asked how nwe the sites are... one was up in March and the other was up in late February I think.

no amount of PR as shown on the toolbar or any other "tool" will help or hinder. The only thing it will get you is more spam from the link beggers!

Don't "concentrate" on backlinks. Get some of course, but look for ones that will send you pre-qualified and interested visitors.

My website PR dropped from P3 - PR0 yesterday and my traffic is still very good

PR is not king. Don't think as so.
I have some PR0 sites but taking very good traffic.

Originally Posted by joshcanhelp

I'm under the impression that a PR0 is just a temporary/negative condition for a website. If you're not doing anything wrong, everything is submitted properly, and you have some kind of content, the lowest Google Grade you get is PR1. I'm fine with PR1; I'm looking to avoid a penalty situation.

Where did you get this idea???

Think of a brand new car that just came out of the factory an hour ago - but the car only changes the odometer every 4 months. Since it's brand spanking new, it's going to show 0 miles on the odo. A week later, since it's still pretty new and hasn't updated itself, it's still going to show 0. That's not a penalty, it's a measurement.

John, it reminds me a story about 4 and 5 years old ask their grandma:
- Grandma, do you know where from little babies are coming from?
So grandma said:
- Nice bird brings them to us
4 years old turn to 5 years old and said:
- Should we tell her the truth or should we let her to die ignorant?

Sometimes after spending days, weeks and months in basement some people will come up with unbelievable theories and then sell them as a real things. You can try to educate them if they willing to learn but you can’t change their minds because their truth is the only one that they want to know.


fastreplies

PR doesnt matter anymore nyways. It used to be nwadays it doesnt.

Originally Posted by fastreplies

Sometimes after spending days, weeks and months in basement some people will come up with unbelievable theories and then sell them as a real things. You can try to educate them if they willing to learn but you can’t change their minds because their truth is the only one that they want to know.

I'm brand new on this site and, as such, you know next to nothing about me. Clearly I'm wrong about this issue but there is no reason to call me a stubborn basement dweller or compare me to a child. I came here to talk to other webmasters and learn about Google page rank. Am I in the wrong spot? Did I try to argue with you? What am I selling you?

Google for "zero page rank" or "PR0" and read what comes up. If you don't know anything about this condition, it will start to seem like a penalty condition by Google.

Thanks for the help.

Originally Posted by joshcanhelp

If you don't know anything about this condition, it will start to seem like a penalty condition by Google.

I agree with you on the first part; it was a bit harsh - but I don't think he specifically referred to you (rather, just an overall sense of how some people respond to these things. And I understand where he's coming from because there are an incredible amount of conspiracy theories surfacing on the 'net).

But if you don't know anything about this "condition," you have nothing to worry about either.

More realistically speaking, think about it as an "intellectual age." As a baby, you might be a PR0 (you know nothing). You may be really smart and get to a higher PR. Then you [may] get stupid again.

Okay, well maybe that wasn't the best analogy, but the only "penalty conditions" by Google that I know of are:
1. Google giving malware warnings to sites that may auto-install viruses (I haven't seen this lately)
2. Being delisted from Google

PageRank is not a penalty. It's just an indicator of "quality" from a standpoint that barely matters nowadays.

Clearly I'm wrong about this issue but there is no reason to call me a stubborn basement dweller or compare me to a child.

Actually fastreplies wasn't referring to you, but the untold thousands of SEO "experts" who expound their ill-conceived and untested theories on the unsuspecting newbie at every twist and turn. And the newbies, having no other point of reference, take on the mis-information as fact and end up being fixated on the more useless metrics instead of concerning themselves with the things that do make a difference.

Hi Josh,

When you have been a member of this forum for a few weeks you will find posts that are full of great information (as is this one), you will also find hyperbole, sarcasm, and posts that that are complete and utter crap (filled with misinformation). The latter drives me nuts, but the rest I love.

First and foremost, I went to the 2 sites listed above - so lets deal with what you can do for both immediately:

• Setup a webmaster account on Google (do the same with Yahoo! & MSN/LIVE)
• Submt an xml sitemap for each site
• Examine your site statistics or analytics to see who's visiting you, how they are finding you, which keywords work, Bounce Rate - afterall its about attracting the right kind of visitors (for conversion) - Google has a free tool for this if you do not already have one.

I like your ste joshcanhelp.com, its a great start with fresh content and it is good, well laid out and easy to read, just concentrate a little more on your title tags and the keyword(s) within the page body you would like to show up for. I did a quick check and found at least 7 sites that link to this site.

For the other site gtmcbride.com there are couple of things I would change immediately, however still concentrate on what was mentioned above. So here's my list which is incomplete, there are others in the forum that can help more.

• I would have used the URL mcbrideconsulting.com rather than gtmcbride.com (It's up to you and your client to make that change)
• You use Anchor text links "Click Here" an awful lot to navigate the site, for example on http://gtmcbride.com/about.html I would just link "For Professional Endoresements" as the link and drop "click here"
• The page http://gtmcbride.com/recommendations/presentations.html has a lot of great information in text and pdf docs that I would also reformat to html pages, (but still offer the pdf version download)
• On the page http://gtmcbride.com/practice/history.html and specifically Gregs (Shortened) Biography you should rewrite it in the third person since there shoild be no "I's" or "me's" in a bio. Alternatively call it "Greg's Autobiography"
• And the book this guy is selling - why not offer an online discount call to action, or at least link to other websites that are selling it - maybe Amazon or B&N?

Josh, I like these forums and I am sure that no illwill was intended - good luck in your digital endeavors.