PageRank vs. Consumer confidence? A Theory

LoveNotWar · #1 (**permalink**) 08-31-2004, 01:45 PM

Hey one and all, I have been thinking about something idly for some time, and I wonder if anyone has an opinion (or even better some evidence to bring to the table!) on whether a good and healthy Google PR makes a positive impression to visitors to a certain website.

I know for myself, if I am on a site which consistantly serves pages of a semi-decent page rank at least a satisfying 3 or so, I tend to (almost subconciously, but not quite!) place more store by the site. If I come across a site which scores a zero consistantly throughout the pages I tend to get put off.

Now I am a reasonably knowlegable soul in terms of Search Engines and so on, so I am not a good litmus test. Of course I am not even sure how many people as a percentage of Net users would even have the Google toolbar ... BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK??

imaginemn · #2 (**permalink**) 08-31-2004, 02:20 PM

PR is a joke and great Google Marketing. Most people out there do not have the toolbar installed and PR will only make sense to a consumer if they have the toolbar installed. I've been talking to several of my clients and they didn't even know what PR meant or what it's for. I don't think most corporate computers would even allow the toolbar to be installed. I think it's just a fancy toy for developers/webmasters to play with. No one likes to fail so everyone's goal is to get a high PR in google and brag about it.

I will have to admit that I got caught up in the game. I have one site that has a PR 4 and should be at least a 6 or 7 in the next PR update and also have another site that has a PR 8. Neither site has increased my sales or higher rankings due to competive terms. To be honest most of my business does not even come from Google. I get more traffic from google trafic does not matter if they don't buy.

I am sure people will disagree with my opinion but PR just doesn't apply or too important to me.

imaginemn

rlrouse · #3 (**permalink**) 08-31-2004, 02:31 PM

The average user has no clue that PageRank even exists and few even have the toolbar installed, so the answer, in general, is no.

That being said, I personally tend to prefer a website that has something other than a white bar on the toolbar simply because it's an indication that:

1 - The site has been around at least long enough to gain a toolbar PageRank.

2 - The page I'm looking at hasn't been penalized for some reason.