Google PageRank Goals Could Cause Failure	Visited: 1926 5.0/5.0 (16 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Nick Stamoulis July 08, 2010

Many people are still hung up on that magical little number that Google decided to make a ranking factor a few years back and I can’t seem to figure out its importance? Sure Google has come out and said that they reward websites that are linked to higher PageRank websites but it is no secret that many websites out there have attempted and succeeded in successfully manipulating that little number to achieve a higher PageRank with very little business benefit.

Here are some tips on why you should not focus on Google PageRank:

1. It’s just a number: At the end of the day PageRank is simply just a number that only exists in the world of Google. Yahoo doesn’t acknowledge it and Bing doesn’t acknowledge it either yet so many people still worry about this little number. Remember that there are two other major search engines besides Google and you need to understand your audience and who is using what engine to search.
2. PageRank doesn’t equal business: What happens when you spend a great deal of time trying to build up your PageRank and the business still doesn’t roll in? It could happen. PageRank doesn’t equal new business or success, it simply increase that little number in your tool bar.
3. What happens when it goes away? If there is anything we need to know about search engines it is that they change all the time. Without notice many times all search engines will announce discontinuations or additions of new search technology that could disrupt what you have been doing in the past and really change the way things operate for your daily marketing.
4. Focusing on manipulation: When you start to only focus on PageRank you lose focus of building your brand and your business online. Your focus ends up surrounding around just building up the PageRank number sometimes causing you to try and cut corners online which never leads to anything good.

The reality is that PageRank is just a number and many website owners tend to fixate around increasing that number causing them to really lose focus on what they are supposed to be doing online in the first place.  The bottom line is Google PageRank is one of hundreds of factors that determine Google search rankings.  Focusing on Google PageRank only will cause your SEO efforts to fail!  So if you are going to hire a new SEO firm, don’t make increasing your PageRank your primary goal.