Google Page Rank Dilema

[hobuk]

Ok sorry to bother all of you again with probably an issue that has been raised many times before but...

I am confused as to how the whole page rank by Google works, I know through kind advise in the past that if you have a poor PR then it seems you dont stay uniform in search results as the SE does not consider you as important.

We have a site www.hireorbuy.co.uk this has just one back link but a page rank of 3/10
Our sales site www.hobuk.co.uk has 15 back links (though all from hobuk) but a page rank of just 1/10
But...www.hob-uk.co.uk has the same back links but a page rank of 4/10.

Could someone with some idea of why or how this works please let me know, I am trying to get some good links but failing at nearly every attempt almost feel like setting up my own link site just to get a link!

Thanks again
Lee

[chris ashdown]

The page rank is not just based upon links but many other things including content

If your three sites are simular they may be handled poorly by google as it can treat it as spam

Also try entering

link:www.your domain.co.uk / com and see what google says are your links

[wjcampbe]

When the search engines find two sites with the same content, they have to decide which one is the real one and give that the PR - if you are lucky. You are not helping yourself by serving the exact same content on two different (but very similar) web addresses. Better to park one and direct all your effort on to the one you keep live.

[jont]

When the search engines find two sites with the same content, they have to decide which one is the real one

Very true - I white brand for another company who use my Export for the images and information - apart from a different design (they use another e-cart) it is the same content, prices, ref numbers etc. They have not got 1 page ranked and can not be found on any searches. After 6 months they have made 3 sales - all word of mouth!

[Mike Hughes]

There are a couple of things going on here:

1. As Bill says, if search engines (and google in particular) find two pages with the same content then they make a decision on which is the most important and remove the other one from the index. The decision on which one is most important is based on the SE's algorithms which they tend to keep secret. They also don't tell anyone how much of the content needs to be unique for them to consider the page unique but if you have lot's of pages with only one or two words diffrent then they'll almost certainly be 'pruned'.

2. PageRank is one of Google's measures of a page's importance, based solely on the links to the page. It does not take into account the content of the page or any other factor (other than possible penalties for spamming).

The calculation of pagerank is based on the links to a page, the pagerank of the page that is linking to that page, and the number of links going out of the linking page. Some links may not be included in the calculation if they are identified as multiple links from a single site or part of a link network, etc

So, for example, a link from a pagerank 9 page with only one link on it its very valuable. A link from a pagerank 1 page with 100 links on it is much less valuable.

You can find lots of details on Pagerank including examples and reference papers by searching on the internet.

3. Settings up other sites purely to get a link are a waste of time as unless you get links to that site then Google won't give the link any importance. You're better to focus your efforts on getting the main site as strong as possible.

Mike

[hobuk]

Hi,

Thanks for your advise on this i will have to talk to the marketing company we use as they were the ones that set up the hob-uk.co.uk site, and from what i understand it just mirrors the main hobuk.co.uk site that i maintain, it sounds like google is taking there site as the better one so do you think maybe i should stop the hob-uk site and just concentrate on the main one?

Thanks again
Lee

[hobuk]

If that makes any sence at all!!

[Mike Hughes]

Yes. Concentrate on one site.

I would choose the hobuk one rather than hob-uk despite it having fewer backlinks showing up in google. In MSN for example hobuk has 683 backlinks showing rather than just 6 for hob-uk.

You can compare the 2 here: http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/

I would suggest the reason that hob-uk has a higher pagerank is probably because of the links that w2m (presumably your marketing company) are sending to that site rather than your main one. If I were you I'd ask them to point the links to hobuk instead (No DON'T, having looked at their site they're using hidden links to the site which could get it banned from Google if they're caught - I personally wouldn't waste my time or money with anyone who does this)

Mike

[hobuk]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your advise, I just now have to call w2m and get them to stop the hob-uk site, one thing, when i used the link you kindly provided me on msn i only have 136 backlinks? have i done something wrong?

Thanks again
Lee

[Mike Hughes]

You haven't done anything wrong. That's the result I see today as well.

Mike