Google Toolbar PageRank Update – The first of 2011

Almost 9 months after the last major PageRank toolbar update (2^nd April 2010), Google finally puts an end to the rumors that PageRank metric is ditched. Currently a PageRank toolbar update is on the way and it should become visible within a few hours from all Google DataCenters.

To check if and how your website is affected by this update you can use the

Multi DC PageRank tool. If the values from the different DataCenters do not much it means that your Toolbar PageRank value has probably changed.

Note that few days ago a thread on Google Webmaster Help Forum confirmed that the next PageRank update will be available soon. John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst and Google Employee wrote:

“We do update the Toolbar PageRank regularly, even if that`s not as regularly as some of you wish. I agree that it would be nice to have it updated more frequently. Given the time since the last update, I imagine you`ll start seeing another one in the near future.”

How does this update affect your SEO Campaign?

This recent update does not directly affect your SEO campaign. The PageRank value that you see on the Toolbar should not be confused with the real PageRank value of your pages. Unlike toolbar PageRank, the real PageRank is updated on a daily basis. An increase on your toolbar value indicates that your real PageRank has been recently increased but don’t forget that this is one of the 200 signals that Google uses to evaluate the rankings. PageRank is an important signal, but still there are lots of other things that you should not ignore.