[This is part of the The Blogger’s Essential Guide to Search Engine Optimization Series.]
A natural question that many people have once they become familiar and acquainted with Google’s PageRank system is how often it is actually updated.
The quick answer is simply this: No one really knows.
But what we do know is that it’s typically updated a few times a year. In fact, Google even states specifically this in their webmaster system FAQ:
We only update the PageRank displayed in Google Toolbar a few times a year; this is our respectful hint for you to worry less about PageRank, which is just one of over 200 signals that can affect how your site is crawled, indexed and ranked.
I bolded the most important consideration in this statement – that Google updates the systems and tools that can visibly report your PageRank value every few months (3 to 4 months on average it seems) but internally they are continually updating your PR value to return search queries.
In other words your PR is dynamic and constantly shifting – in fact, the “real” value is most likely a decimal value like 3.358 or 7.158 and Google just rounds it up or down for the “pseudo PageRank” value.
That means that even if you start a new blog and stay at a PR0 for quite some time until the next visible refresh doesn’t mean you’re not ranking well in search or getting any organic search visits.
In fact, I know this for a fact as I’ve seen my organic returns systematically increase over the last 10 months like clockwork, even though I held a Google PageRank of 0 for most of that time (until the most recent update).
Here’s a look at when Google has visibly updated their PR for sites and blogs (via Toolbar, etc):
2012:
- February 6th, 2012
2011:
- November 7th, 2011
- August, 2011
- June 27th, 2011
- Jan 20th, 2011
2010:
- April 3rd, 2010
2009:
- December 30th, 2009
- October 30th, 2009
- June 25th, 2009
- May 27th, 2009
- April 1st, 2009
2008:
- December 31st, 2008
- September 26th, 2008
- July 25th, 2008
- April 30th, 2008
- February 29th, 2008
2007:
- December 12th 2007
- October 28th 2007
- April 30th 2007
- January 25th 2007
- January 10th, 2007
2006:
- September 28th, 2006
- July 30th, 2006
- April 4th, 2006
- April 7th, 2006
- February 18th, 2006
- May 27th, 2006
- January 30th, 2006
- January 4th, 2006
See any patterns? Perhaps a few but it’s really anyone’s best guess.
Final Considerations:
Also, make sure that you completely ignore any website that tells you that you that they can adequately and accurately “guess” your real PageRank value – these statements are bogus and not worth a second thought.
Finally, it’s worth remembering that PageRank is just one of 200+ signals (factors) that Google considers in its search engine ranking for your blog – it can be tempting to put too much weight on it like many other things. Google counsels webmasters and bloggers to hold this perspective strongly in their minds:
PageRank is an easy metric to focus on, but just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s useful for you as a site owner. If you’re looking for metrics, we’d encourage you to check out Analytics, think about conversion rates, ROI (return on investment), relevancy, or other metrics that actually correlate to meaningful gains for your website or business.
Right? Your time is far better spent creating amazing blog content, focusing on your community, and optimizing your blog’s low performing pages, top performing pages, and even your hosting, code and WordPress Theme!
[This is part of the The Blogger’s Essential Guide to Search Engine Optimization Series.]
I think you went from 0 to 5 on this last update. Great job!
wow, that’s awesome! what do you attribute it to?
Great read John. I think my page rank is 2, but I just look at as “better than 0″ !! LOL. Good stuff bro.
it is better than 0! it’s on its way up!
BTW, what are you using for the related articles at the bottom of the posts? Funtcions.php mod? Plugin?
Not to step on toes… (I think John is on vacation or something??? He hasn’t responded to comments on the last several post).
Anyway, he’s using the nRelate Plugin. I have it on my blogs as well. It’s nice, right?
this is correct. i’m doing some tests and customizing the code.
and thanks for replying!
Jeremy, you are the man, thank you for the reply on this one. I really like the look of it better than “linkwithin” so I will be giving this a shot. Thanks again!
many of these plugins are really heavy. i’m trying to either trim this one down or build my own.
Hey John,I got Standard Theme Installed and I’m Struck with it. I want Post Excerpt with Full Image on Home Page,Just like yours…Can you help me?
Hi Jagz, you can use your full image and whatever copy you want then use the “more” tag to define where the excerpt ends. Nothing really tricky about it.
http://tentblogger.com/more-tag/
John,
Are you by any chance using some sort of automatic sharer such as post.fm to put your posts on several different sharing networks all at once?
Just curious….
nope. all manual. don’t trust those. some of those get you banned.
Thanks for this useful information. I am eager to work on to increase my page rank.
glad it was helpful!
Really helpful article for those like me who are quite new to this.
sure thing back pain!
Gosh I am glad I found this article today! I thought google was stoned or cursed! That page rank don’t even update in half a year, I can’t believe it! Now I know the answer! Thank you!
good to know, i just started with my site about a month ago. when i checked for my PR and got 0
i was kind of worried because i have been putting allot of effort with the SEO. I guess i´ll have to wait for the next update to see if this effort is well rewarded 
thanks
Very good information. I was starting to obsess over my page rank, but this article has opened my eyes to a better approach to things. Thank you
Thanks, atleast i got to know it happens 4-5 times a year..
So what if the links vanish after the pagerank update do I keep the pagerank? I actually have a site with many links.. page authority 47 and Domain Rank: 4.51 from SEOMOZ and the sites pagerank is still 0. Is there any way my site was penalized or just didn’t get its pagerank yet.
Its been long time Google haven’t updated my pagerank. I want my pagerank to get updated so that my website showup in results. Even after writing quality posts , I am not showing in Google Search result.When is the next Google Update ? Still my website PR haven;t changed. When is the next update after August. One more question, If i create a backlink, when does google come to know about it ? Please reply !!
http://www.topwebsitecheck.com is a very good historical google pagerank checker tool to analyse your rankings. and more…. backlinks, alexa ranks, facebook mentions, site speed….