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How Google’s PageRank Ruined the Web?

I am writing this blog post in response to an article written by Danny Sullivan titled “RIP Google PageRank score: A retrospective on how it ruined the web.” Recently in class we studied the PageRank algorithm. PageRank is an algorithm used by Google Search to rank websites in their search engine results. It can be perceived as a method of measuring a website’s importance. We learned that one way for a website to be perceived as important is by being linked to by other websites. This article examines how this hurt the web.

According to the author, Google went wrong when it enabled  the PageRank meter on its Google toolbar for Internet Explorer. It was a tool that displayed the PageRank score of any webpage. The author believes that giving out PageRank scores caused SEOs to obsess over that metric and created a link-selling economy. According to the author, networks developed so that people could buy links and improve their PageRank scores. After discoverinng this, Google penalized these networks and some of those in the network with PageRank score reductions or actual removal from Google. Afterwards, people chasing higher PageRank scores began dropping links wherever they could, including into blog posts and forums until Google found a solution to that problem. Slowly Google has removed PageRank scores from places that made it visible. According to the author, this has reduced the obsession with links that pulled many SEOs away from other important work and caused many to forget about the other ranking factors.

RIP Google PageRank score: A retrospective on how it ruined the web

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