does PR really matter anymore? I've heard statements from G that this metric is not that relevant to search results. I gather it does influence how often a page gets checked and reindexed though, so perhaps the frequency of indexing is a better metric to watch than PR?

@mrhelpful where did you read that PR doesnt have so much of an effect anymore? This is certainly interesting if it is the case. Message Edited by NicoleD on 01-22-2010 12:40 PM

It was on the Google forums, and also a sttement from Matt Cutts at Google I think on why they removed the PR guide tool from Webmaster Tools. they said it was a bit counter productive to tell people not to focus on PR and still provide them with a tool that indicates it. Personally I don't buy it - while PR per se may not be important, the underlying factors that give you that PR clearly remain important. I think they took the tool off because it's so out of date. almost all PR scores you can find are months out of date anyway and only get updated semi annually. I do find it frustrating though - I want to make my sites a G friendly as possible and PR seems a good way to find out how G see's them

It is extremely unfortunate that because of certain policies and alogirthims followed by corporations like Google/Yahoo, so many sites have to deal with link and Backlinks spam. I have seen forums and articles all over the internet cluttered with spammers. Many people just leave comments like 'Good Post', 'Nice Information' or even 'thanks' followed by 2 or 3 banklinks. These people obviously have no time to read the original posts, instead thet are there for their own good. Many places on the web (like this article blog) are now increasingly disallowing html links alltogether or giving nofollow links (like wikipedia), which are useless. Back to original question, Yes.. everyone believes that getting backlinks from .gov and .edu is a little more beneficial than other domains. More than anything if the niche of your own blog is similar to the site you are commenting or writing content can be in your favor. I think it is ok to leave a link, if you are really participating in the discussion and the link is relevant to the discussion. Message Edited by NicoleD on 12-23-2009 09:01 AM

Thanks for chiming in, Jessica. You're right about other forums where users like to add an inconsequential post like 'Good Post' or 'Nice Information' followed by 2 or 3 banklinks. This is something that we try very hard to minimize here at Business.gov. Posts like that don't improve the overall business knowledge of small business owners which is a core principle of our mission. We appreciate all of your efforts, my fellow members, to keep the Business.gov Community light in self-promotion and heavy in good, solid, useable business knowledge. Success to all!Stuart

It's truly unfortunate how corrupt the entire backlinking process is. When I search for my keywords, most of the sites are full of scams or just a hot mess of ads with no content. Like most other searchers, I wonder why good content sites don't rank the highest in searches. Search engines should (at least marginally) provide a user feedback system. If I search and get a bunch of junk sites, I should be able to let G or Y know that these sites stink! If enough other users do the same, these sites should be downgraded in searches. It's so frustrating when you know you have better content than your competitors, but you'll never rank as high as them with their blackhat SEO practices and those blackhatters are the majority of the 'good post' garbage on high-ranked forums. Freebies and Instant Win Games Message Edited by NicoleD on 12-27-2009 01:36 PM

Sadly (or perhaps happily so), Google et al are little more than dumb counting machines. They count links. They count words. They count pages. They count visitors. There isn't a single brain cell amongst them, so they have no way of judging the value of any site without having something to count. So, until someone invents a really smart computer, we are stuck with the counting algorithm. This algorithm, incidentally, changes on whim, and is so complex that Einstein himself probably couldn't figure it out without insider information. From our perspective, we need to play the game. AND we need to keep it real. Yes, backlinks count. How much? I haven't a clue, and neither does anyone else. It is part of Google's 'proprietary information'. So I do what I would do anyway: I post messages (like this one); I write articles; I make comments. In short, I become part of the business community. And that seems to work. In the process, it creates backlinks. So become part of your community, and it will all come together in the end. If you happen to have .gov and .edu sites in your community, join them. If not, don't force it. Keep it real. MaryAnnBusiness Plan MasterStart and Finance Your Business Now ---This post was edited to remove a commercial link. Read our discussion policies for more Community best practices.

Hi MaryAnn, When I was at the Web 2.0 Summit this passed October I saw an interesting presentation from Mark Drummond, CEO of a search engine called Wowd. Wowd lets you discover what’s popular on the Internet right now. In the old days (last week) search results that depended on linking were similar to fossil records of the web: there were no references for measuring how relevant a link was. Now, freshness can be measured by how many times a page is actually visited. As users discover which ones meet their needs and which ones don’t, a page’s rank changes. As a result, Wowd search results provide you with links to pages that are relevant now. Thought you might be interested in what may be the new way of measuring relevance of a web site. Enjoy!Stuart

Wow. this is making my head spin. I hope they don't change the factors that determine ranking. this is likely to turn the internet upside down and inside out.