So its out now. What we’ve suspected to be the case all along is now confirmed by noted expert Aaron Wall. Google is hand editing the Page Rank values of some prominent websites. Case in point: paid directories. According to Mr. Wall, the directory Joe Ant had dropped to a PR 3 because of hand editing by Google.
So what seems to be happening now is that Google may be manually increasing or decreasing the search engine’s perceived link popularity for certain websites. Websites that may derive Page Rank through organic methods may still be vetted to conform to Google’s strict new relevance standards. The search engine may now be striving to deny link advantages to websites that may otherwise be irrelevant.
This brings us to the issue of relevance and quality. Website content must be relevant to the topic of the website, and the site must actually deliver what it claims to. This is the best way of ensuring a steady increase in link popularity and a corresponding response by the world’s biggest search engine.
