For those familiar with the latest craze brought on by the Google gods, you know that PageRank is something every webmaster feels he or she must have. Some stand strong by the necessity of it while others feel it’s nothing but a visual eye candy on the Google Toolbar. So what is the truth to this madness? What are the benefits to having a high PageRank? What, if any, are the disadvantages of having a great PageRank? Well, hopefully I can help explain and/or make some sense of it’s existence.

When Google first began using their fancy ranking system of a particular webpage, webmasters began to take notice of it and the importance of having a high ranking. Initially, having a high ranking meant having a high listing in the search results. So word spread rapidly and the madness began with everyone trying to figure out how to get their listing ranked higher than their competitors. People began to notice high ranked sites that link to other sites seemed to pass ranking down through simple text links. This led to link swapping and link buying. Matter of fact, there are several link brokers whose sole purpose is to sell you high PageRank links. If you are doing this, please continue to read.

This has been a topic with many advertisers and I always pose this suggestion:

“Give me any key phrase and I will show you at least 10 listings that have a lower PageRank and appear higher in the results than at least 10 listings that have an extremely high PageRank.”

PageRank is merely an indication of how often your site will be checked for new material. It most certainly factors into the search results, but having a high PageRank is no guarantee you will be listed in the top. So spending hundreds of dollars a month on high PR sites is a complete waste of money in my opinion. Not to mention it is not something the Googleoids like to see.

The Benefits of Having a High PageRank?

Benefits do exist with a high PR, but in the world of business, it shouldn’t be a concern for most webmasters. There may be other benefits not listed, but these are the most obvious:

1. When Google Toolbar users visit your site, they see lots of green in your PR rank. This can offer some assurance to customers that your website/service is worthy of a high ranking.

2. It assures you that the Googlebot will constantly be checking your site for new or changed content. If you add new information on a daily basis, this will help the new information be available in searches much faster. News sites would greatly benefit.

3. It can also make your website real estate value increase quite a bit. In other words, those who have a high PR can easily begin selling text links on their website and make a nice monthly income from it. As I said earlier, the majority of webmasters buy strictly on the PageRank because they still believe it will help their results listing.

As you can see, there are a few advantages to having a high PR, but not too many. If you are selling a good or service, PageRank should be the least of your worries, bringing new customers should top your priority list.

Disadvantages of Having a High PageRank

While there are not really any disadvantages, you could consider the fact of many webmasters bugging you for a link to their site. With the new software programs that sniff out high PR sites, it has created a whirlwind of webmasters emailing the owners of these sites begging for a link swap. These requests can get pretty annoying at times.

To summarize the purpose of this entry, the point to take from it is PageRank is not something you should waste your money on, unless one of the few things listed above apply to you. Just let your PageRank come naturally and buy text links from partner listings based on their content and other natural stats. Make your website popular for all search engines.