Links dropped from GWMT

[deepsand]

... I'm baffled as to how and when this Webmaster Tools data actually updates.

There seems to be no observable pattern as to timeliness, completeness or accuracy.

In short, link data from Google continues to be as it has always been, notoriusly incomplete and inaccurate to the point of being only slightly more useful than the Fool Bar PR data.

[Clint1]

Has anyone noticed a significant number of links dropped from their GWMT? A large number of those links I noticed no longer included in "Links to your site" were from WPW and a few other sources.

As you know by now from the other thread and since I wanted to also subscribe to this; yes, same thing is happening to me. 35-40k, to about 23k, to only 11k! Now I guess my frickin' PR will drop...yet again.

Interesting you notice your WPW IBL links dropping. Surely WPW pages are not being deleted from the G index, are they?

[Clint1]

For each new page indexed and added to the PR calculation matrix, the actual PR value of all other pages falls.

For each new link gained by a page, the actual PR value of all other pages falls.

So, even in you keep all of your IBLs, but gain no new ones, your PR will fall continuously.

How is that possible? Why do no big-name big business sites have dropping PR?

Are you essentially saying if one my pages gets an IBL, the PR of your site drops???

[williamc]

Are you essentially saying if one my pages gets an IBL, the PR of your site drops???

Basically yes. Total PR is not an infinite number. As new links are added to any site, the individuals get recalculated and adjusted accordingly globally. It is easier to understand if you think of it in terms of %'s of value.

[deepsand]

How is that possible? Why do no big-name big business sites have dropping PR?

Are you essentially saying if one my pages gets an IBL, the PR of your site drops???

The actual PR of value of every other resource participating in the PR calculation matrix drops.

Actual PageRank is a measure of probability, value range 0 to 1, of mutually exclusive events, such that the grand sum of all individual PR values must = 1.