I have several customers who monitor their website’s Google Toolbar PageRank. In fact, they do not take action on links unless the site has a favorable Google Toolbar PageRanking.
First off, it is important to understand that Google does not show your real organic PageRank in the Google Toolbar. Additionally, the PageRank in the Google Toolbar is not the same as PageRank on Google.com. Confused yet?
Here are the quick notes you should remember about the Google Toolbar PageRank indicator:
- PageRank changes by page and not by website.
- Each time Google crawls your site your Google.com PageRank may change.
- For each search query entered on Google.com, Google delivers the pages in order of true PageRank not Toolbar PageRank.
- Toolbar PageRank is not the same as PageRank.
- Google does not show the real PageRank for any site so as to prevent SEO firms from working the system.
- I have found that Google updates Toolbar PageRank infrequently sometimes once in six months.
- A Toolbar PageRank of three could not carry the same real world Google PageRank as other three rated sites, there are more factors at play.
- A high Toolbar PageRank does not mean a high Google.com PageRank.
- You can probably now disable your Google Toolbar if you were using it for SEO position referencing.
I have found a terrific article at The Search Engine Journal that really digs deeper into this topic and would highly recommend that you read it. It debunks some of the misconceptions webmasters and website owners have had about the importance of the Google Toolbar PageRank. I personally do not use the Google Toolbar PageRank indicator for any decisions about my own website.