Not limited to PageRank: gradually choose other operational indicators

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As with all the rich curiosity of netizens, I also set up Google News, whenever my name on the internet to be mentioned in time, I will receive the relevant e-mail. Usually, I get some hints about my forum posts, blog posts and Twitter messages. However, in the last few years, the most talked about topics in these newsletters have been one of the things I accidentally mentioned, which we announced in 2009 about our deletion of the PageRank distribution in Webmaster tools.

After nearly two years, people are still commenting on the issue, which usually begins with "Amazing News from Susan Moskwa: ...". This fact shows that PageRank has become a necessary statistic tool for some webmaster. Even if I have communicated the most inexperienced webmaster, also often heard of PageRank ("PR"), and want to know more about PageRank information, and PR on their website means what. However, as I said in the forum post, in fact, over the years Google Webmaster Center team has been warning the vast number of webmaster, they should not be so dependent on PageRank, as a representative of the success of the site index. Today, I would like to explain this position in more detail, and give you some relevant operational indicators options, once you stop tracking your PR, can be used to kill time!

Why do you choose PageRank?

In 2008, Udi Manber, vice president of Google Engineering, wrote in Google's official blog:

"In our ranking algorithm, the most famous part is PageRank, which was developed by Google's two founders--larrypage and Sergey Brin. PageRank is still being used, but it has become part of a larger system. ”

In 1998, when PageRank was just created, it might highlight Google's advantage as a search engine, but given the rate of change introduced by Manber-an average of about 9 [improvements] per week-we have had many opportunities over the past 10 years, To expand and refine our ranking system. Today, PageRank is no longer the ultimate ranking algorithm for every second kill-if it ever was.

If you look at Google's technical overview, it will find relevance as one of the top components of our search results. So, for relevance, why aren't people as concerned about PageRank as they were before? I think that's because the PageRank is expressed in numbers, and the correlation is not. Regardless of relevance, or PageRank, both include a lot of complex factors, such as background, searcher intent, popularity, reliability, etc., but over time, it is easy to draw a sketch of the PageRank in a short period of five minutes and submit it to the CEO, but for relevance, We can't do that. I believe that the concise characteristics of PageRank is precisely the reason why it has become a necessary indicator in the minds of webmasters. But just because something is easy to track does not mean it can accurately represent the dynamics of the site.

What do we really want?

I dare say that none of us really will PageRank as a final goal. PageRank is just a stand-in for what we really want: to make our site more money, to attract more readers, to lead more, and to attract more email subscriptions. The focus on PageRank as a success indicator is only in the following hypothetical conditions: Assuming higher pagerank results in a better ranking, and assuming that this will boost your site's traffic, And then assume that this will bring more people to your site to operate exactly as you set it. In addition to these assumptions, keep in mind that we only have a limited number of updates to the PageRank displayed on the Google Toolbar within a year, and that if we think some sites violate Google Webmaster Guidelines, we may be able to reduce the PageRank display of these sites. So, the PR that you see shows is different from the actual ranking of our algorithm. So, when you can directly measure what you want to achieve, why bother with a number that is at least three steps away from your actual goal? Find the metrics that are directly related to your business goals and you can spend valuable time on furthering these goals.

If I don't track the site's PageRank, what should I track?

Pay attention to those direct indicators that are meaningful to your site, not just the rank signal. You can also consider the indicators that are updated daily or weekly, instead of the numbers that change a few times a year (such as PageRank), the latter is too slow for you to understand what changes in the site are causing the number to rise or fall (assuming you update your site more than once in a year). Here are three metrics recommendations that you can start with, using Google Analytics (analytics) or Google Webmaster tools to track all of these metrics:

Conversion rate

Bounce Rate

CTR (CTR)

Conversion rate

The so-called "transformation", refers to the visitors on your website to follow your settings to operate. Conversion can be done once a purchase, either by registering a mailing list, or by downloading a white paper. Conversion rate refers to the percentage of site visitors who convert (perform transformations) on your site. This is a perfect example of metrics that are directly related to your business objectives, unlike PageRank. As the user transforms, what they are doing can directly benefit your business in a measurable way! Given that your PageRank is difficult to measure accurately (see above), it will rise or fall, but will have no direct impact on the business.

Bounce Rate

The so-called "jump out" means someone comes to your site and then leaves without visiting any page on the site. Bounce rate is the percentage of site visitors who "jump out" in the number of visits to your site. A higher bounce rate may indicate that the user feels that your site is not attractive because they come after a glance and go straight away. By looking at the bounce rate of different pages on your site, you can help you identify poorly performing content and indicate areas of your site that may need improvement. After all, if most searchers jump out immediately after visiting your site, it doesn't matter how your site is ranked.

CTR (CTR)

In the case of natural search results, the click Rate is the frequency of people clicking on the site in all the Times that your site displays in search results. A lower CTR means that no matter how your site is ranked, users will not click on it. This may indicate that they don't think your site will meet their needs, or that other sites look better. One way to increase the click rate is to see how your site title and Web page summaries appear in Google search results: Are they convincing? Can they accurately represent the content of each URL? Can you attract searchers to click on them? Here are some suggestions to improve your Web page summary; The HTML suggestions section in Webmaster Tools can also point you to pages where you might need help. Once again, keep in mind that if the searcher doesn't want to click on it, your site rankings will be of little use even before it comes up.

There are a number of dedicated blogs and books are detailed introduction and exploration of a variety of web page indicators, so if my explanation just touched the surface of the problem, please understand; If you want to delve into these topics, you can start with the website Analytics guru Avinash Kaushik's website. But hopefully I can at least convince you that there are some more direct, effective, and controllable ways to measure the success of your site than PageRank.

The last thing to note is that some site owners are very concerned about the PR of their site, because unless they have higher PageRank, people will not buy their website links. To buy or sell links through PageRank is a violation of our webmaster guidelines, and very likely to bring negative consequences to your site, so 1 I strongly oppose this approach, 2 if this is your stated goal, then if we do not intend to help you improve PageRank or improve your site, Please don't be surprised.

We are happy to know what metrics you find useful and operable for your site! You are welcome to share your success story with us in the comments section here or in the Google Webmaster Help forum.