(No?) Life After PageRank Update

So, PageRank was updated yesterday morning, and Top Tutorials went from 5, to 4, to eventually PR3. Sweet. It would have made me really frustrated, but let’s look at the positive sides of it. According to Seomoz’s list, many PR6 domains ended up being PR3 yesterday, so my loss is not all that crucial after all. I still have PR5 pages that stayed intact and I still have traffic and like Aaron Wall says, “Traffic Matters, Google PR does not”.

Google “Hates” Us, What Now?

I’d say that building your business online based on Google, in one way or another, is just not wise anymore. Most likely soon, new algorithm will be introduced to us and PR will either lose it’s previous significance (no wonder since so many popular websites lost it), or will just represent a different value, that no longer plays a role for advertisers anyway. Some say it would be the era of “TrustRank” now, others, like myself, believe Google will come up with some totally new concept. Jeremy said, that when linking to others, the important part is, “not to make Google look stupid”. Easy for him to say, since his PR was not effected. Bloggers like Brian did not care about SEO and selling links — lost PR, blogggers like John Chow with huge and open links sales income — lost PR, while other prominent tech blogs have mostly kept their current Rank. Getting back to Jeremy’s advice, doesn’t Google look stupid now, after this chaotic and random update, that most Internet experts fail to understand?

Can We Live Without PageRank?

Theoretically, doctors would tell you that your heartbeats, breath tempo and blood circulation does not depend on Google PageRank’s candybar somewhere in the cyber world, while we all, of course, know it’s not true. So how can we keep breathing without it?

Simply, don’t build on Google anymore, unless it’s Google Adsense. The future is obviously in Social Networks and Sponsored Blog Reviews, as well as RSS readers and traffic. Genuine traffic, not even Alexa Rank.

Assuming that selling links won’t really die but will probably be in a smaller demand, concentrate on regularly updated content, quality post with links and information, participate in social networks and forums to spread the word.