Are you ready for the PageRank (PR) update of 2009? Or you may ask, will there be any PageRank Update this last quarter of 2008? I saw in the feedjit of my other blog that a lot of people came there searching about page rank updates. Maybe the questions they have in mind revolve around one thing: How to Improve Page Rank.

PageRank

If we are following the trend of these PR updates, we should expect a toolbar update late next month or early next year. Google does it more or less once every three months. The previous update was at the end of September wherein this site got ranked. Yeah, a mere PR1!

If they’ll have another round of update in 2008, then the 2009 round will be towards the end of the first quarter. You may also try predicting you future pagerank. Go to pagerankprediction.com and check your URL. I cannot vouch for its accuracy though because it shows different results for www., http://www., and http://. Even my other blog shows a not so good and inconsistent prediction. And from that prediction (even how inaccurate it is), develop your strategy to improve your page rank.

Given more or less 45 days to improve your PR, what should you do? Two things actually: Gain Backlinks and Save PR juice.

Gain Backlinks

1. Create High Quality Content – When readers talk about the information you give, they usually link you back, and share that useful information to others.

2. Submit your site to web directories – There are free web directories out there. Though they may not be a good source of traffic, the high PR ones can at least give you the backlink you need.

3. Ask friends to link your site in theirs – Ah, this is easy! But they might feel bad if you won’t link theirs.

4. Put a link to your site as a signature in the forums you joined – This is applicable when they allow html in the signature portion. If not, put the link directly in your post, when necessary. But avoid spamming or you’ll get banned.

5. Reward readers to link to you – Did I write bribe? Make a contest and ask participants to link to you. A lot of people are doing this. Participants won’t really care about your ulterior motive as long as you have attractive prizes.

6. Comment on sites with Dofollow – The original intention of this is to reward commenters with a link juice. Take advantage of this, but leave well-thought-of comments. Don’t spam.

7. Persuade sites with high PR to link to you - The persuasion is up to you. Go back to no. 1.

8. Too much link in such a short period of time can backfire – Search engines reward hard work and punish the crafty evildoer. As much as possible, gain natural/organic backlinks.

Save PR Juice

1. Avoid too many outbound links - Google doesn’t want you to give out too many links, lest they suspect your site to be a link farm. If you doubt the site you linked to, add the rel=”nofollow” to your html tag.

2. Don’t link to banned sites – You should know what these banned sites are. Check also the footer of your free themes, as they may contain links to a banned site.

3. Avoid linking to unrelated sites – This could get you banned. Now, I have to think what is an unrelated site to a general blog like this one. If you’ve done paid posts in the past and got spanked, maybe it’s now time to restructure your blog in time for the next page rank update.

It is easy to achieve a PR3 in less than 90 days. I’ve done it twice, but not for this Busby SEO Test site. I got a few people linking to me since I joined the 2nd Busby World Cup, so there is a chance that I’ll get a better page rank come update time.

On the other hand, be careful that your site is up and running when the robot from Mountain View, California visits your site. You might not get an update despite the hard work you’ve put up.

Popularity: 41% [?]

Building backlinks is an arduous task, but it is necessary to push one’s site in the front pages of the search engines. Currently, the total backlinks that this Busby SEO Test participant has is three as per report generated by backlinkwatch.com. Imagine, after 30 posts, I only have 3 sites linking to me!

This SEO contest is an opportunity to change the inner workings of this blog. First it was the Title. Obviously, the blog title plays a vital role in the search engine optimization game. All others had their Busby SEO Test as their blog title (or added to their blog titles). There is almost no difference at all, because these experts recognize the importance of the title. Had it been allowed to use domain names containing the keywords to be optimized, the busbyseotest.com.net.org.whatever would have been sold out immediately, minutes after the announcement.

Then the meta tags. I’ve already done that in my previous post. To check the meta tags of a website, click view, then the page source of the site. Search for whatever meta found on the codes. You add and/or alter the meta tags of your site.

Now, it’s the backlinks. Google considers a link to a site a vote for that site, hence, improving the importance of the linked site in the eyes of Google. So, where do I start with the backlink building?

First, it would come from me. I got a few ranked blogs out there. None of which had linked this site yet using the anchor text: Busby SEO Test. I want it linked to my domain, and not in any single post. That would be my start.

Next are my friends. Friends, please link me in a post or in your sidebar. Use the code here:

<a href="http://ceblogger.com">Busby SEO Test</a>

If you had done so, please let me know so that I can give recognition at a later time.

Then to those who just want to help, you may copy the said code above. I don’t have money to buy links. But if I’d win, I’ll share the winnings, even if it will only be the fifth prize.

Popularity: 33% [?]

I don’t have to shout announcing that I now have a page rank! Three months ago, I blogged about my race for ranks. Here was my starting position:

Alexa = 23,346,775
Google Page Rank = N/A
Technorati = 0
Subscriber = 0

Today, my rank had significantly improved in terms of Alexa, but not in the others. Here’s my new stats:

Alexa = 1,396,303
Google Page Rank = 1
Technorati = 1
Subscriber = 0

I know I’m a bit too slow for this blog. I failed to make it grow in the quickest possible time. But anyway, the blogosphere is still wide, wide open for growth. I have to overhaul this blog bigtime, and I have to do it ASAP.

Popularity: 23% [?]

I set up this blog too late for the page rank update. I know that timing is very important when you want to get a decent page rank in the fastest time possible. My other blog, Blog From Cebu to The World, was set up weeks after the 1st update of 2008, so it was able to get a PR3 in less than 90 days when the 2nd update happened.

While I was vacationing in some paradise islands in Cebu, Google promoted some blogs and screwed some. I got none of those updates and downgrades. But you may ask, how should one get to PR3 fast? I got some self-explanatory list here, and I’ve tried this twice already:

1. Timing - Set up a blog right after the toolbar update. Normally, Google updates quarterly. Between now and mid-August is the right time to set up a new site.
2. Content - It’s not enough that you set up a blog and write an entry. Regularly update it. If you can post daily or every other day, do it.
3. Inbound links – Request for links from friends. Exchange links with other newbies, as they are most likely eager to fill their blogrolls. Submit your blog to directories. Include the address of your website in your forum signature. Comment on blogs with “Do follow”
4. No to paid links – Don’t immediately ride on the paid link bandwagon. Defer it till you get enough numbers.

And what if you got penalized? My penalized blogspots got zeroes still. I don’t know how I’d plea for my case. But since I am on a free-hosted platform, I cannot really do much. I was expecting that they’d expire the penalties, as Matt Cutts said in his blog. Here’s what to do when you are penalized:

1. Ask for A Reconsideration - This is when you go to your Google webmasters toolbars, click on a button at the lower right of your dashboard that says “Request Reconsideration”. When you make a request, be sure to back it up by following the rules. Some did and got a reprieve.
2. Just blog on – Posting a plea or a rant on your blog won’t do anything. Just blog on like you don’t care for page ranks. If you do paid posts and earn from paid links, as long as there are opps, continue doing your thing. One day, those penalties will expire in time. I’ve seen it in many blogs. But I have not seen it yet on those using blogspot.

By the way, this blog got a PR update from N/A to zero. At this time, I prefer the former.

Popularity: 31% [?]

Today, July 7, 2008, is the first day of this blog. I have no rank to boast of, but I will do my best to improve my standing in the next 100 days. I will list here my starting positions:

Alexa = 23,346,775
Google Page Rank = N/A
Technorati = 0
Subscriber = 0

Wow! This is the worst Alexa Rank that I’ve seen. But I know that everything will change in a very fast pace. Not a week, nor a few days. Hard work is needed in this race for ranks. I will not ask for ex-links nor give out links for favor. Just natural and conventional blogging growth. I’ve been in this kind of position before, so I think that I can achieve these goals in the next 100 days:

Google Page Rank = 3
Technorati = 50
Alexa = 800k

Wish me all the best here!

Popularity: 26% [?]