PageRank has long been a part of the overall google algorithm and has been displayed publicly for all to see within various toolbars, browsers and SEO tools. PageRank, put simply, is the algorithm that weights each element of each page according to a quality score and ranks the page accordingly. Higher page rank means in theory a better quality page that is likely to show up in a more favourable position in the SERPs. For digital marketers, SEOs and Webmasters it has been an easy reference point to see how a site is performing and if a current optimisation strategy is having any overall effect.
Any digital marketer or SEO worth their salt knows that PageRank is just one among many metrics to judge the efficacy of a campaign and as early as 2009 the future of visible PageRank has been doomed as Google removed it from the Webmaster Tools stating that “We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it”. Since then public PageRank updates have been reducing in frequency until finally the announcement was made that it would no longer be available to anyone via any means.
The good news is this announcement changes nothing whatsoever as the PageRank metric will still be part of the algorithm it will simply no longer be displayed in its frankly outdated and useless form. Hopefully it will have one positive effect and will finally convince those site owners and webmasters that refused to update from HTTP for the sole reason that PageRank would not carry over to the new HTTPS version. So, bid a teary goodbye to public PageRank if you must but remember that Google’s mission to improve the quality of the internet for all users’ marches.
