Key SEO Concepts Changed by Google

With the MayDay and Caffeine updates, Google has changed the playing field considerably.

It used to be that you could put up a site and get it to a top search position by placing links to it.

However, Google has changed the playing field.

It used to be that Page Rank was derived from a mathematically based formula, the simple version being that the page rank being transferred from the linking page to the linked page was 85% of the PR on the linking page, divided by the number of outbound links on the page.

PR= 85%X PR of page with link/ number of outbound links on page.

It did not matter if the linking page was about a different topic. All that mattered was the PR of the linking site.

Linking was also said to drive search standings up.

No more.

I have a new (NBS-SEO.com - May 15th 2010), website that I have been tracking closely.
Last week I noticed that the Page Rank went from 0 to 4

I also have another website, FantasticMachines.com that also has a PR4.
Fantastic has been around since the internet was only 4 computers and has built up an organic following of over 5000 websites.

My webstats show only 120 links to the site, not nearly in the same volume as Fantastic.

If Page Rank was being calculated mathematically this simply could not be.
I now suspect that it is based more on relevance than before and less on the math.
All my links to NBS SEO were done in SEO discussions, like this one and that must now count heavily.

In regards to the Caffeine update, Googler Matt Cutts said that it was done to facilitate ranking and not one of indexing.

Ranking is faster for both new websites found by their spider, (no comment on manual submissions yet), and tweaks to existing sites. My last site ranked overnight after it was found on my business website.

In spite of my nbs-seo.com site jumping to PR4, my search results for "organic search engine optimization training" stayed at #2 out of about a million competing sites.

Another factor that swings me to the dissociation of PR and search positions is that a low or even 0PR page can be in a better position than a a page ranking higher.

I think we can now say without fear that linking projects will not show the same results, and that Page Rank and search standings are distinctly separate.

Page Rank has no discernible effect on search position.
The amount and quality of the inbound links is not the determining factor in Page Rank.

Link building will increase traffic and in the right circumstances, PR, but will not affect search positioning.

Search results are mainly achieved with relevance and on page work.

best,
Reg