Google PageRank Finally Updates - Leaving the SandboxOver the past couple of weeks I had been hearing about the latest Google PageRank Update from several other webmasters. I, as the webmaster for Syd's Eastside Auto Parts, also grew increasingly uneasy as our Google PageRank has remained at an unchanged PR1 for six months, now.
Fortunately, on Thursday, January 25th, 2007, at approximately 3:00 pm, I closed all of my open windows and restarted my FireFox browser to see all new PageRanks in my Google Toolbar for our website's homepage. I started Internet Explorer and confirmed the good news. Google had updated our PageRank from a PR1 to a PR4... Finally!
Further investigation on the website revealed that all of our pages have been updated to a more favorable PR, as well. Older internal pages seem to show a PageRank of 4, while recently added or renamed pages show a PR of 3. A few brand new web pages don't yet have any rank, as of yet.
We have been awaiting Google's recognition of our website design and building efforts for a considerably long time. Quite frankly, we have been alarmed about Google's failure to recognize us, as well as many more of my own personal new websites that I have just put online this year.
The Google SandboxI can assure you that the Google Sandbox is not a myth, it is very obvious that Google is actively detaining new websites from being able to make an impact on the world wide web by purposely restraining their PageRank numbers. This is absolutely so, for whatever reason, but the days are gone where a website can make a splash on the internet by simply taking a long established business online. And herein lies the dilemna of every webmaster for a new website that just came online.
Unfortunately, at this date, we are not out of the sandbox just yet. It seems as if Google is being overwhelmed with their own technology, since upon arriving to work this morning, the Google Toolbar indicated a PR1 for our site. As the day progresses, Google now shows us at a PR4, again. This is because Google has not yet updated all of their servers. So, it's as if we still have one foot in and one foot out of the Google Sandbox. This is a shame, really, it's as if Google continues to dis our efforts, if only once in a while.
The truth is that Google is growing too big for its britches, and we will have to wait for all of Google's servers to update before we will see a PageRank of 4 for the site, consistently.
I have to feel a bit sorry for Google, actually. There used to be a time where it was the fastest and best for good reason. Now Google servers seem to be struggling to present the information I require so constantly that it looks like it is waffling under it's own weight. There was a time when inclusion into the Google search database happened within days, that it updated every 3 weeks (sometimes sooner), and when inbound links counted as a point for a company's marketing efforts. Sadly, things have changed much in the past year or so (as usual). It drives us webmasters NUTS.
It just goes to show you that no matter how much attention one pays to the Google's Webmaster Central information, partner with Google, use Google's Webmaster Tools, establish inbound links and traffic, verify your business with Dunn & Bradstreet, or are verified with the Better Business Bureau's BBBOnLine Reliability Program, new sites are usually going to wallow in the Google Sandpit for quite some time. At least, until Google addresses the inherent problems of being so huge and mighty, and makes the required corrections. Unfortunately, I only see these problems getting worse as Google diversifies and pays less attention to its core business.
Our Google PartnershipsBut we aren't abandoning Google by any means. Syd's Eastside Auto Parts has already partnered with Google to establish a custom automotive search engine (Automotive SEARCH which you can read about in one of our previous announcements (12-04-2006 or 12-01-2006). We also experimented with Google's Page Maker tool to create a little homepage for us at Google Pages and have taken advantage of Google's Blogger to establish the Autos & Automotive Blog, the feeds of which we look to incorporate into the website after a while.
Continuing Our Partnership with GoogleActually, today (Friday, January 26th, 2007) we established a new group at Google Groups to compliment our blog, aptly named Autos & Automotive. We are hoping to create a large network of automotive professionals and enthusiatsts in a friendly environment that may well grow to a influencial community for the positive change and improvement of the automotive industry.
We hope that the group will attract commercial, professional and entusiast attention, as it covers all aspects of the automotive industry. If you have any interest, please request to join the Autos & Automotive. we require a personal request for membership to avoid spam and spammers. Just be sure to indicate your reason or interest in joining the group. We want real members, but will delete generic requests that look suspiciously like a spam bot trolling for email addresses.
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