PR(A) = (1-d) + d(PR(t1)/C(t1) + ? + PR(tn)/C(tn)) ... GOT IT?
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Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin
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By Martin Kelly
OK, say it in hushed tones: The Google Algorithm. Say it again: The Google Algorithm. Let it become a mantra: The Google Algorithm. The Google Bloody Algorithm - got it?
Too late, it’s changed … again. I could say that the web world was abuzz with the recent tweak by Google of its infamous algorithm but that would be telling a lie.
More accurate is that a few thousand search professionals got excited because Google had apparently changed the algorithm controlling PageRank, its core site ranking system.
This latest algorithmic alteration was interpreted by SEO tragics as another attempt by the web giant to devalue paid links on the websites it monitors (which is basically all of them).
There’s some irony here, because of course Google actually makes its money from paid links yet is effectively discouraging other websites from doing the same thing.
Links are important because, as Google says, “PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value.”
In other words the Google ranking of a website is largely determined by the quality and quantity of its inbound links from other websites.
This minor online frenzy got me thinking: what a strange business this is due to the dominance of a single company.
The total reliance of so many online businesses on the rankings economy Google has created means there’s kind of a master-servant rather than business-customer thing going on.
I can’t think of any other industry where this has occurred in the same way, though some would no doubt nominate Microsoft.
As a result Google doesn’t have to interact with its customers the way a normal business would because clients really can’t take their business anywhere else.
Sure, there are other advertising vehicles, such as Yahoo!, but they are a supplement rather than an alternative.
So Google doesn’t talk if it doesn’t want to, and it never wants to talk about what it considers proprietary information – ie PageRank and the Google Algorithm.
Consequently an air of mystery of surrounds these Twin Search Pillars, which are slavishly tracked and analysed by search marketers around the world.
As usual, it didn’t say anything about its latest supposed change.
Word simply got out when a few webmasters woke up and found their site rankings had changed.
SEO forums went into over-drive, and the industry collectively decided that PageRank had changed and this was the latest Google strike against paid links.
At least that’s what the SEO community thinks happened.
They don’t actually know, and Google is not about to say anything.
Like I said it’s a strange industry.
Search Engine Room: December 6, 2007
