google pagerank and why we shouldn't think about it
Entrepreneur's Journey | PageRank Explained - by Yaro Starak is a quick and easy-to-digest article discussing the ins and outs of Google PageRank.
Some key points:
- The best thing you can do is focus on creating good content and not think about PageRank much, if at all:
The best sites with the highest PageRank never worry about PageRank, they simply keep churning out content that people love to link to.
- The data in the Google toolbar's Little Green Bar only changes quarterly. The actual rank can change daily. [I'm not sure if live lookup tools get the quarterly value or the latest value.]
- It will help if other people link to you, but just let it happen naturally. XFN blogrolls, anyone? ;)
- Write clear, accurate titles.
All of these points are pretty much compatible with my own thoughts on SEO, which still boil down to this: SEO is not rocket science ;)
I can never quite settle on an approach for writing titles. The SEO answer is simple, keyword-inclusive titles; but I've found humans respond pretty well to creative (but not necessarily keyword-compliant) titles. I guess - as in all things - balance is good; and that's about all you can really say.
"[I'm not sure if live lookup tools get the quarterly value or the latest value."
No, they use the quarterly value :(
Google doesn't allow us access to the inner sanctum of data until they are good and ready...