What’s a PR person to do?
Public Relations (PR) personnel have long relied on Google PageRank to decide which blogs to choose for featuring their products, selecting brand ambassadors, placing ads, etc. Now (as of this writing), Google Page Rank has not been updated since April 2010. (Sure as I write this article, they will update tomorrow). It’s really unfortunate for people like me and Simply Stacie. Both of us switched to WordPress in May (after the Google blogger fiasco in late Spring where a bunch of blogs just disappeared for no apparent reason), shortly after doing so, our page rank dropped or went to “Unrated” which is worse than zero! (mine from Pagerank 2 to Pagerank 1 and Simply Stacie’s went from 3 to Unrated!) The really sad thing is that Simply Stacie is a HUGE megablogger with a monster following on Facebook, twitter, and GFC. She is super professional and certainly deserves her status (and a great Pagerank). This blog, Still Blonde after all these YEARS, has grown significantly during this time as well, multiplying our Google Friend connect by 5, Facebook by 4, twitter is up to 550, and our page visits and visitors has escalated markedly as well.
So What?
So What? Well for Simply Stacie and myself and others like us, the lack of Google Pagerank update has hugely impacted our ability to generate income from our blogs as Public Relations firms are sadly uneducated in measurement numbers. Most of them only know Google PageRank…that’s it. Google has not commented nor done anything since April 2010 on this metric. With this lack of updating, we are being crushed. Our only alternative, is to educate on the current relevant measures. Three very relevant measures I have found are mozRank, Website Grader, and Alexa. As noted by Simply Stacie in her recent article, Bye Bye Google Page Rank, Hello mozRank :
Page Rank and mozRank are similar in that they both measure a websites popularity and authority online. mozRank is run by SEOMoz and measures sites on a scale of 1 to 10 (just like Google PR does).
Website Grader is actually an overall grade with commentary about what you can do to improve your site. It will also do a mega-indepth analysis at at cost (approx. $150). I have found the free recommendations to be extremely helpful. I display my Website Grader badge on my blog at all times (Why wouldn’t I? My grade currently stands at 98!) Website grader will tell you your mozRank as well when it takes a look at your overall site. So it’s like a two-fer! You can find out your mozRank on other sites as well such as Open Site Explorer and Website Analyzer.
You will find that your mozRank can slightly vary among these sites.
Alexa is another site I use to compare my blog with others (I find Compete to be very unreliable). Alexa ranks your blog among the top websites in the world and US. Supposedly, if you can break 500,000 in the world, Public Relation firms will start to take notice (the lower your number the better). If you put the Alexa code into your blog and claim your blogsite, it supposedly helps out your score (I have yet to figure this one out…).
So get these numbers out there. Post mozRank, Website Grader, and Alexa on your blog, take every opportunity to explain to Public Relations people about the “current” irrelevance of Google Page Rank (now if Google updates–that changes the whole ballgame, doesn’t it?) Here is how I post mine on my Contact Us/PR/Ads Page:
Our Current Stats (December, 2010):Website is 14 months oldPage visits–15,000/month and growingWebsite grader–98/100MOZ Rating–4Entries per giveaway — Small giveaways (400-700), Large giveaways (800-2000). That’s a huge quantity of visits to your website because all of our giveaways are interactive with your website. 0ur entry process requires viewers to visit your website, friend you on Facebook Etc. Here’s an example giveaway from Lifetime Brands https://stillblondeafteralltheseyears.com/2010/10/140-kitchenaid-lifetime-brands-giveaway-cook-for-the-cure-kitchen-tools/Facebook fans: 845Feedburner/Rss:870Twitter: 590Google Friends Connect: 1180Email newsletter (for giveaways only):1100+Alexa Rank: 76,000 (US) 340,000 (World) (a lower number is better, we are in the top 1.07% of all websites worldwide)
Google Page Rank: Please note Google has not updated their Page Rank since April. Page Rank is NOT a relevant measure for a blog unless Google updates on a regular basis!Please be advised: We are a super fast growing blog.
Tell me how you are addressing this problem if you are a blogger?
UPDATE: GOOGLE DID UPDATE MY PAGERANK ON Jan. 20, 2011 from a 2 to a 3! See article here for more on that:
Thank you for sharing this. I have been waiting for PR to update to see if my efforts have paid off. I checked my MOZRanks and its a 4, which seems fair if its equal to PR as much as I’d love a 5, I’m really not quite there yet. Have you found anyplace that has a icon/graphic for the MOZrank, I guess I’m just so used to the PR tool that just typing in my info page my MOZank doesn’t seem as relevant as my PR prominently displayed in the sidebar.
I went to those sites after reading it on Stacie’s & was happy to have my blog not be a zero on there. It shows a 96 & a mozz rank of 3.45 so I’m glad to see that.
I have to agree that many of the “old” methods of measuring reach are not getting the job done anymore. However, some of the newer ones are not much better – my Klout score has fluctuated by as much as 20 points within a few weeks and I agree that compete.com seems to be at odds with the other measurement-type programs I have used.
I guess the moral is, if you are looking for stats to measure your own growth, look at all of them to try and get a complete picture and don’t put too much faith into any one of them alone. As for the PR people, those who take the time to look through a blog and read the posts/comments/etc will (hopefully) recognize the value there despite what PR is assigned.
I know that many, many bloggers will appreciate this article. I’m putting a link to this post in our January Issue of BOLD because it’s quality content such as this that helps bloggers worldwide meet the challenges of today’s internet. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks Linda!
Thanks so much for sharing with your readers. Hopefully companies and PR will see that Google PR is a dinosaur LOL!