I noticed some amazing coincidences in the recent pagerank update. read the full story here: http://deanhunt.com/google-pagerank-hosting-theory/ and please let me know if you have seen something similar.

It could just be because most sites that have been upgraded from PR5 / PR4 upto PR6 / PR7 during the last update have outnumbered the standards of yours, because remember even the PR10 sites are getting bigger, meaning that PR10 sites are more like PR15 so in order to stay with PR10 being the maximum, it lowers sites. ?

You're right about one thing: the conspiracy theorists will love that one. Put something about 9/11 in there, and you might find yourself on Snopes!

I'm curious what you mean when you say "and the fact that half of my link strength is being leaked," though?

Google COULD know what server your site is running on, and what others run on it. Or at least they could come close by using IP addresses. But that would take extra work for their programmers, and for their computers. What would be the payoff for them?

I just did a search for "web hosting" and clicked the first link I could find. Web hosting plans start at $4 a month, but a server starts at $75, and goes up to about $130. So that tells me there are probably more than 20 sites hosted on the average web server. And that the average site probably has a lot of neighbors on the same machine, that it has no control over. More poking around bears this out.

Since shared hosting is so common, it really wouldn't make any sense to punish the practice.

I think what you're seeing is a coincidence, and not cause and effect. I can't think of any reason Google would frown on moving from one server to another?

what is my site Filesforfree.com PR?

4, according to "SeoQuake."

Maybe its just a coincident. I think google give more importance on the quality backlinks.

thanks for sharing,,,

Disclaimer:

Your PR may go up or your PR may go down. Your website may be at risk if you do not keep up the payments on it.

Thanks for the updates.

I should point out that one of the sites has been pr6 for over a year, and we have been building quality backlinks to it. So it certainly hasn't been neglected or left behind.

It is alwyas possible that we have done something wrong, but in this instance it is highly unlikely.

Also, we have some sites that HAVE been neglected, but they are the same pagerank, so it doesn't seem to be related to links.

I am an SEO consultant, so I know how pagerank and link building works, but this is certainly a strange one.

Why is it strange? it's not like it's something that just happened suddenly!!!

It's something that has taken place over the course of several months, it's simply the update of the pointless green bar that has made you aware of some changes that occured weeks ago.

Would you be considering it "strange" if the change was in the opposite direction
No of course you wouldn't

And what are going to do about it when;

You have no idea what happened
You have no idea when it happened
You have no idea what caused it to happen
and
You have no idea if it will reverse itself in next time the toolbar display is updated.

I think Google is teaching you guys a lesson. Stop relying on PR for your bread and butter. PR is meaningless.

there are a lot of Incorrect presumptions in this thread. Chrishirst & visio in particular.

Perhaps I explained it wrong, but the above two missed the point completely.

deano you probably need more evidence to prove something one way or the other. I read your post and based on what you did and didn't do I wouldn't expect to see the PR drop like it did.

There could be other explanations though. I realize you're not new to this so I would assume you know more about your link profile than I do. But maybe a few high PR links you've had for awhile are no longer passing PR to you for any number of reasons.

Maybe Google tweaked the PR algorithm some and unfortunately it affected you the way it did.

When you moved hosts did all the URLs stay the same. I'm guessing they did, but even forgetting to redirect the non www to the www could explain something like this.

I think class c links can have an impact on ranking, but I don't think it would affect PR, which would be the main thing to me in switching hosts.

I really don't think there's a conspiracy going on. I don't believe Google is knocking you back so you don't sell links. Do you buy links too? Maybe those aren't passing PR like they once were.

If I saw what you saw I would probably be surprised too. It's not something I would have expected to happen, but i think there are too many variables to draw any conclusions and I really don't think there's a Google conspiracy here.

I don't think I missed the point, I simply have no misconceptions about PR and how the toolbar display works (or doesn't) with even the slightest degree of accuracy.

Point 3 of your post

Both sites went down to the EXACT same amount PR4 from PR6

How do you know it's exactly the same amount ??
It may appear to be the same on an integer scale but due to rounding errors it could be wildly different.

But I don't think you need to look very far for the why's and wherefore's, seeing as www.deanhunt.com is 4 and deanhunt.com is 3 on my toolbar display.

Originally Posted by deano6410

there are a lot of Incorrect presumptions in this thread. Chrishirst & visio in particular.

Perhaps I explained it wrong, but the above two missed the point completely.

Please explain where we were wrong.

Believe me I know PR and the misconceptions of it. PR is useless yet is widely accepted as something when in reality you are chasing nothing. I have clients who want to know why their rankings dropped. After a little research alot of times I find that they were focusing their efforts on PR and in so doing lost their rankings. PR is the fools gold of the seo world. Rankings are the gold. Go for the gold not fools gold.

Rankings are the gold.

Conversions are the gold, you can usually take the result of conversions to the bank or the

Originally Posted by deano6410

I am an SEO consultant, so I know how pagerank and link building works, but this is certainly a strange one.

This is a flawed assumption, and misses the point completely. Much more so than visio et al. You don't know what happened to your two pages, which is why you had to come up with a theory. It's not a bad one, you identified something different about two of your sites, and blamed their misfortune on it. But thinking that because you work in the seo field, you know the answer to every question about seo, is a logical fallacy.

Please don't take offense - none is intended. I'm just pointing out the obvious. Once we get over our misinterpretations, we can get on with finding the real answers.

Originally Posted by Dale

It could just be because most sites that have been upgraded from PR5 / PR4 upto PR6 / PR7 during the last update have outnumbered the standards of yours, because remember even the PR10 sites are getting bigger, meaning that PR10 sites are more like PR15 so in order to stay with PR10 being the maximum, it lowers sites. ?

Very good. That explains some things.

Does pagerank even mean anything these days? I see a lot of LOW LOW pr sites at number one spots. I think its more of a bargining chip nowadays than anything. My $.02