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Getting that relatively high page rank PR 4 for my Home Internet Business Homepage 2 weeks ago came with some mixed feelings for me. I admit when my homepage had gotten a PR1 a long time ago, I was more overjoyed than getting my PR4 now. Now why is that so you might ask?
Well that’s because in our internet marketing journey we learned that page rank though important contributes only about 10% of what Google uses to give ranking to our search terms. ( page rank: 10%, page content: 30%, backlinks: 60% ). So it doesn’t sound like a big deal, right? Or is it?
It’s not like I’m going to get much richer with this PR4 but then again getting a high page rank is a recognition of what I have done on my homepage and it didn’t come overnight. It’s the same sense of satisfaction whenever I succeeded in something small but fulfilling that has kept me going all this while. Call it a little boost to my ego a little bit with this new PR status. While I’m not over the moon with a page rank PR4, I’m happy it came. It just reaffirms the approaches of some of my work particularly my link building strategy, which I’ve practiced and shared with everyone here.
Let me share with you what I think may have helped me get my page rank PR4 in a chronological list of important events:
1. Link Building:I researched and followed some of the best SEO practices including one from a good friend of mine Scott Coplen’s SEO Tips. I wrote a 5-part blog series documenting and sharing with everyone what I’ve learned. Have you read any of my Link Building Strategy-5 Part Series?
2. Getting Backlinks:I think at some point in time, you could say I focused a little too much in getting backlinks. This post The Easiest Way To Get Backlinks Starts Here described pretty close how fanatic I was in getting lots of backlinks. You could say my quest for backlinks started from here.
3. Blog Commenting: One of the easiest ways I found in getting lots of backlinks is through blog commenting. I didn’t believe it at first so I took up a personal challenge and started an experiment to see if it really works. At the end of the test I have to say yes it sure did, but not before learning a lesson on How Blog Commenting Got Me 1200 Backlinks in 5 Days. Here are some backlinks growth statistics Oct 2008: 1566 inbound links; Mar 2009:12,873 inbound links.
4. Top Search Engine Ranking: There were already some signs of Google noticing me, or rather, my backlinks growth although most times, we really cannot tell exactly this number in Google. But I started seeing more keyword phrases getting to top search engine rankings. The most noticeable keywords “Work From Home Ideas” and Work At Home Ideas made it to Google Top 10 in Nov 2008. They have stayed on the first page till today. Well that’s another challenge, keeping it there.
Another of my favorite keyword phrase “Home Internet Business” lies on 12th placing out of 174,000,000 in Google, waiting, just waiting…..
5. Link Exchanges: Don’t underestimate the benefits of doing link exchanges, laborious as it may seem. While #3 focused more on getting quantity of backlinks, my search became a little more intensive hunting for quality backlinks too. The post “The Easiest Natural Link Building To Search Engine Success” takes a look at how important it is in doing link exchanges with others. I focused exclusively in link exchange with other sites with high page rank. The funniest part is that many people approached me first to do these link exchange too, some with high page rank PR5. If you’re still not convinced that quality links are better than quantity links, you can read more in “10 Back Link Building Techniques Bloggers Often Missed (Part 3)”
“Getting a few of the right links, from the right places can be more valuable than getting 100 links from the wrong places.” – Jim Boykin
“How easy is it to get Page Rank PR4
Well I’ll let this table provide you the quick answer:

Disclaimer: This table may not be the most accurate calculation of the number of backlinks you will require to get your desired PR so please use it only as a good benchmark in your link building.
You can see the full chart here:
How long did I take to get Page Rank PR4
The quick answer would be how long have I had this homepage and it’s 20 months. So does it really take me 20 months to achieve a PR4 ranking? Of course not because I’m a part time blogger working only 4 hours a day and if you’re a full time blogger, you could well achieve it much faster. Like I said before it’s relatively easy, if you follow an organized plan.
My Final Thoughts
While in the truest sense, page rank having a 10% influence over your top search engine ranking may seem insignificant, it is nevertheless an important part of the equation:
PR (10%) + Quality Contents (30%) + Backlinks (60%) = Top Search Engine Success
It is also a highly regarded metric used by advertisers seeking out advertising opportunities in all online niche markets and blogs, besides the usual Alexa and Technorati Rankings.
For me the excitement is already over and the real task has begun. I believe that getting a high PR4 is relatively easy but maintaining it is the bigger challenge. And of course the fact that Google has the final say in changing the way page rank is calculated, makes it even more challenging to maintain a high page rank.
For reference:
Understanding Google Page Rank
How Did Google Calculate Your PR?
Over to you…what have you to say about getting high page rank, how you got yours and does it really matter to you if you are PR1 or PR10. Why or why not?
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April 16, 2009 at 8:24 pm
First Peter, thanks for sharing my post as a resource!
What Peter said is quite right, PR used to be important a few years ago, but as people started to manipulate it (quite easily) it's value has considerably dropped; however, this doesn't mean you have to look down on the achievement of people who succeed to get a good PR.
It still is at the very least a personal statement of your achievement, and you should feel proud of it.
The reason why I think the PR is not so reliable is that firstly it's very easy to manipulate, and secondly, should Google decide to change totally the algorithm used to calculating it, including more SEO metrics in it, the numbers and value could be completely reversed for some sites.
April 16, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Very good blog post here peter! I appreciate how you took the time to explain step by step. Even though some thing aren't as important as they were a few years back, some people still want to know and maybe try things out for themselves. Keep on blogging Sir and I will be back.
Truby
April 16, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Well done, Peter. I know you have worked hard to achieve your PR 4.
My Work From Home Opportunities home page stayed at a PR 2, and my Work From Home Resources blog is still at PR 0. With that being said, my new Nintendo Video Game site managed to jump to a PR 2 just after about 4 months, and it's all duplicate content.
PR is fickle to say the least, and I also agree it's not the be all, end all. It certainly boosts your ego to see it jump up, but I would be much happier to get my site ranked within the top 5 in Google
. PR does have its advantages, though, as you pointed out.
I would feel as though I've accomplished a lot if I were you. Great job!
April 16, 2009 at 9:24 pm
I too have heard that PR is not as important any more as it used to be, but I was still happy to see my blog go up to a PR3! I think it shows that we are working hard to provide our readers with good quality content and have something to say in our niche. It also gives the readers a chance to comment on a higher PR blog and therefore creating a more valuable backlink back to their own website – again a plus for your readers. I have noticed, too, that I am getting more exposure on the SERPs for some of my posts because I picked the right keywords. For example, I am on Page 1 with 2 results for “Free Affiliate Insider” http://www.petra-weiss.com/internet-scams-free-….
Thanks for filling us in on how you achieved your great PR!
April 16, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Wow peter..your backlinks grow very fast in just 5months.. Btw, commenting in nofollow blog doesn't help on SERPS right?
I just have to say getting link from higher pagerank site says PR4 or PR5 is very difficult as they don't want to lost their current link juice..unless you have similar PR with them..
You have very good points here, thanks again for sharing your experience Peter!
Regards,
Lee
April 17, 2009 at 12:42 am
@Nicolas Prudhon: That's true about Google changing its algorithm. I've had this same site moved from PR3 to PR2 to PR4 within 3 Google PR updates. So I'm not sure how long it'll last and I'll let it boost my ego for now
April 17, 2009 at 12:51 am
@truby: A lot of what we do is pretty much inter related. So your PR will eventually increase over time when you accomplished other things you set out to do for the good of your business. PR is well like getting a bonus on top of other things you have succeeded. Good to see you here Truby.
April 17, 2009 at 12:58 am
@ Work From Home Opportunities: Well since my homepage changed from PR3 to PR2 to PR3 to PR4 within 3 Google updates, you may see yours going up real soon. It's interesting to know about your blog with duplicate contents got PR2. Mine with duplicate contents moved from PR0 to PR1 to PR0. within 2 updates. It'll be interesting to see how it goes in the next update. Hope it gets higher of course.
April 17, 2009 at 1:06 am
@Petra Weiss: You brought up a very good point about how people like commenting on blogs with higher PR (Danke Petra!). Also if we see a blog or site that has good PR it also suggests that that blog has been in existence for sometime. So it helps any possible business ventures or just doing link exchange with the owner..
Good to see that your keyword phrases are doing well in your SERP. It therefore pays to spend some time in doing keyword research.
April 17, 2009 at 4:43 am
I hear that joining forums is a great way to get all-important backlinks too as many forums, having regularly updated content, rank well in Google and especially if you find on-topic forums with content relevent to your business.
Search engines are such a minefield though, I've looked around and there areas many different opinions on SEO as there are people working in the field!
Your list Peter is a great starting point! Thanks!
April 17, 2009 at 4:54 am
Nice tips on getting higher page rank. It's not as important as it used to be but getting higher is still very pleasant
April 17, 2009 at 7:36 am
@ Best CSS Gallery: Thanks for your kind words. Yes It's good for my ego boosting
Thanks for dropping by. Appreciate.
April 17, 2009 at 7:40 am
@ Home Work Newbie: Yes I agree that Forums are a great way to get backlinks but they have to be do follow ones. You do get backlinks when you put your signature links but it's important to post frequently and make a name for yourself too to see better results. Good that you could use my list and thanks for dropping by.
April 17, 2009 at 9:11 am
Hey Peter,
A great post as always. I always learn a great deal from your blog. There's so much to learn that you sometimes get information overload and actually stop doing what needs to be done.
I've done some Article Marketing early on and that did help with backlinks but then stopped as I learned of other tactics to increase SERPs. I like the way you've outined the 10$ + 30% + 60% equation. That helps to understand Search Engine Optimization a little better.
Thanks again,
Luca
April 17, 2009 at 10:07 am
@ Luca Di Nicola: Well Luca we have something in common. I started off writing lots of articles and submitting to Article directories but stopped after learning about the benefits of getting lots of backlinks from blog commenting. But life may come one full circle. I may resume my article writing to ezine sites again soon, but may have a different focus than just backlinks. I'll have to think about it. Thanks for dropping by. Appreciated. Just visited your blog. It's looking great BTW.
April 17, 2009 at 10:47 am
Congratulations on getting a PR4 on your home page, do you find that keeping the same content on the home page is the best practise, or regularly changing the message on the page.
April 17, 2009 at 12:28 pm
@Khaled:That's a great question. You always have to update your home page. In fact one SEO specialist says to do it at least once in 17 days.
April 18, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Very good work, Peter, and I'm glad you've moved up. Course, didn't you also give up doing paid posts when you got hit with a penalty, or something like that? I can't remember what it was. But the link building is probably the strongest thing you did. Congrats!
April 18, 2009 at 12:56 pm
@Mitch: No Mitch you must have been mistaken with the post on 'OMG I Got The Google Ban?' There was no ban at the end. My SERP for one keyword phrase disappeared for about 5 days and I thought I had been penalized by G but as it turned out, my SERP came back. Hey you only remembered the title and not the contents. Well that means it was a good title eh? lol
April 18, 2009 at 6:45 pm
I think getting backlinks is the most tedious part. Yes, sure you can do blog commenting and that when done strategically is easy, but I think that eventually Google will probably start not counting those whether dofollow or not. At any rate though, you've got some good ideas here I should probably look into
April 18, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Well, it was a long time ago, and I remembered the initial panic in the post, so there you go. I bet no one else remembered even that much!
April 18, 2009 at 11:52 pm
@ Loud Mom: I've not seen you around here so first welcome to this community. Well we will never know what changes Google will make will we. Till this happens I think blog commenting is one of the best and easiest ways to get backlinks. Also it's part and parcel of belonging to a community. Besides the backlink part, these conversations are good for learning and sharing.It makes this virtual world a little closer to the real world.
April 19, 2009 at 1:59 am
I just found your this page about Page Rank. My blog http://sarkari-naukri.blogspot.com has come to PR2 from PR4. I am worried for it. Can you guide something. I have a very good reader base. But stil Page Rank is vety low. Can you help to build Good Rank again.
April 19, 2009 at 2:21 am
@Manisha: Welcome to this community since I've not seen you here before. Wow you got tons of subscribers on your blog. Very impressive. I'm not sure how long you've had your PR4 before Google downrank it to PR2. But like I said PR has only about 10% influence on your search engine ranking so I don't think you're going to see that much impact on your SERP and therefore traffic. Google recently made some changes on its algorithm. Here is one post which you can get some ideas about the changes:
http://www.peterleehc.com/blog//seo/less-seo-ta…
April 19, 2009 at 3:51 am
My PR is at a 3 right now, I would very Happy to have a PR of 4, and if I get a PR of 5 in the next update…. I'll be super happy!!!!!
Thanks for the great strategies you've shared!
April 19, 2009 at 5:32 am
@ Joey Logano Fan: Welcome to this community too. Good luck to you on your next PR update.
April 19, 2009 at 6:39 am
I enjoyed your post Keep up the good work. Thank you for sharing that information! I came across this in a Google search
about advertising franchise opportunities that help you start your own business,
http://www.bizymoms.com/franchises/opportunitie... what do
you think?
April 19, 2009 at 7:26 am
@ Chloe Hoffman: Hi Chloe, thanks for your kind words and welcome to this community. Well since you've found this blog, do come back and visit us again will you?
April 19, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Peter, congrats on the PR4. Even though PR counts for only 10% of the overall way Google looks at a website to me or someone that has no PR it is something that we must work at achieving. Do you agree or are you saying that once we work on all the other things that our PR will be attained by default?
April 19, 2009 at 7:38 pm
@ Medical Billing Trainer: Nothing comes by default if you don't work on it. What I was saying is that some of the things that we now do will help to increase our PR. Like if you work on getting lots of backlinks to your blog or site for the purpose of better SERP, that may ultimately help in increasing your PR too.
April 19, 2009 at 11:51 pm
I'm doing an experiment with blog commenting, but definitely need to increase my backlinks to bring up my pagerank..
If only there was more time in the day..lol
April 20, 2009 at 1:36 am
Thanks Peter, I will be sure to be a regular reader
April 20, 2009 at 1:45 am
@Melody:Yes, everyone needs backlinks, lots of them, not just for pagerank but search engine ranking too. But you kill 2 birds with one stone
I've found blog commenting to be very powerful and gets me lots of backlink. I've found getting to be top commentar list has given me some quality backlinks.
April 20, 2009 at 5:01 am
hi..
i like to work at home.These tips are really useful and informative to get high PR.i think commenting also is a good way for it.
April 20, 2009 at 5:56 am
Like everyone else I would like to congratulate you. Getting a PR4 shows that you're doing things the right way and if you keep it up you'll probably get a PR5 sometime down the road.
I'll go read your linking articles with interest.
/Mikael
April 20, 2009 at 9:41 am
Peter, seems that you've been working very hard in building links to get your PR4. Btw, I saw some people able to get PR4 in just a few weeks or few months blog, I think they should get some high PR blog link to their blog.. I'm working hard to build backlinks right now..let's see what is the result on next PR updates..should be somewhere around July..
Regards,
Lee
April 20, 2009 at 9:58 am
@ Freee Movies: Thanks for your comment. Glad you found my tips useful.
April 20, 2009 at 10:01 am
@ Mikael @ Retire Rich: Thanks for the compliment Mikael. Well I can't discount that possibility of a PR5 although it will take a little more effort than PR4.But it sure is a good sign that it is going up and not down so I must be doing things right like what you said. Thanks for dropping by.
April 20, 2009 at 10:04 am
@ Make Money Online: I tend to agree too. Judging from the table I posted, it's not really that difficult. But we just won't know if Google will change this calculation methodology in the near future. Well good luck on yours at the next update Lee.
April 20, 2009 at 4:25 pm
You're right. I really didn't expect it at all. The only thing I do is have a link to it within my forum signature on the Warrior Forum. I haven't done much other marketing for it other than socially bookmarking through OnlyWire and some RSS and blog directory submissions.
Hopefully it will go up or at least stay the same. I'll let you know the next update.
April 20, 2009 at 8:47 pm
I'm not too worried with PR. The best we can hope for would be maybe a 6 or 7. Not a lot of room for growth. I'll just keeping doing what I'd do regardless of what it does.
April 21, 2009 at 11:04 am
Hi Peter,
Just to be sure if my SEO toolbar is working and my google toolbar. Did you see PR3 in your blog? and PR4 in your homepage? I use to see that PR. But today I see PR0 for your blog and PR2 for your homepage.
What happened? maybe my toolbars are not working properly anymore.
Let me know.
Luis
April 22, 2009 at 5:49 am
Hi Peter,
Sorry to be a pain here, but exactly how do you tell which are “do follow”?
April 22, 2009 at 10:50 pm
google toolbar is not accurate., try to check by pr checker site. sometimes it measures too much than the real result.
April 23, 2009 at 3:34 am
Getting a high page ranking of 4 is indeed something to celebrate. We know some friends trying to reach that mark in a short time.
April 26, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Luis is correct! I just did a check for the PR of both pages using my favorite tools (checkpagerank.net/index.php) and (SEO plug in for Firefox) the result is PR0 (BLOG) & PR2 (HOME PAGE). As a final test I used Website Grader (another thing I have learned from this blog and peter) and they report PR0 (BLOG) & PR3 (HOME PAGE).
I wish I took a look last week when I found out about the PR4 so when this drop occurred I could have investigated the reasoning so I could understand what factors affect my websites.
Peter why do you think the PR has changed over the last 2 weeks and why is there a difference in results rendered by the tools I used?
Paul
April 27, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Your table of gaining PR formula might be accurate but I know many sites and blogs which have a few backlinks and they own pretty good PR. I think traffic and content also count a lot for PR(I didn't believe it though).
April 28, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Is there a tool out there that will give me the following?
Count of how many websites or pages is linking to me
PR of the pages linking to me
URL of the websites linking to me
Text used within the link that is linking to me
I would like to do some experimenting with the chart that was given in the post. Thanks in advance to any that answer.
April 28, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Congrats on your ranking and thanks for the advice!
April 30, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I have to say that Peter Lee has to be one of the best (and undervalued) bloggers on the planet right now, I love almost everything the man writes.
May 1, 2009 at 9:33 am
i want to get a high PR to link to my blog at goodandwell.blogspot.com
but I dont know how to get them to link to me. Help!
May 4, 2009 at 8:33 pm
The table mentioned in this post is nice. I have always negative feeling about blog commenting. I mean you need to make sure that you will constantly make comments on blogs, so you dont lose the backlinks. Otherwise, it can hurt & Google can penalize you for that. Is that true feeling ?
May 21, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Well your home page is currently Page Rank 0 which pretty well shoots down all your theories about how to get a higher page rank.
Let me guess, you bought some links which have since been unearthed by Google or some decent links you had have now themsleves dropped off because they were using paid links.
Unlike most other people I don't believe a single word Google say when it comes to Page Rank for anything other than educational and government web sites. Most reciprocal link pages are now a compelte waste of time.
It was no surprise really. The whole linking concept was so prone to manipulation by web masters voting for each other when the visitors themselves had no such vote.
May 21, 2009 at 12:08 pm
By the way your beloved Disqus widget tool keeps producing errors after submitting a comment. What a piece of junk.
May 21, 2009 at 8:27 pm
@Steve: Yes this blog has lost its PR although it's not the homepage. The homepage went down from PR4 to PR2. I think there were 2 things that may have caused this. I don't sell links but Google probably didn't like my having 3rd party ads. I now had all this taken down. There were also many errors on 301 redirect on that day it happened, although not sure how that happened. I've fixed them.
May 25, 2009 at 11:35 am
I have to agree Ed! In my niche most of my competition has been online way longer than me, have way more links to their websites and they have PR's of 4 and better. However my placement in the search engines out rank the majority of these big time PR achievers so there are other factors (like you said Traffic, Content, etc.) that need to be researched other than what is in the list.
May 25, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Steve, the page rank is not for the blog it is for the homepage http://www.peterleehc.com
Why do you believe Google's page rank is only correct for Government and Education websites?
June 3, 2009 at 9:33 am
Great post!
But I would like to read more about this.
Sincerely,
Bernard Bonehard
vca vol
December 12, 2009 at 5:55 am
There's is no telling on what your rank will be, but keep getting backlinks will move your ranking up. Here's a list of directories that are free and have a high Google PR.
March 5, 2010 at 11:11 am
I just found your this page about Page Rank. My blog http://getsarkari-naukri.blogspot.com has come to PR2 from PR4. I am worried for it. Can you guide something. I have a very good reader base. But stil Page Rank is vety low. Can you help to build Good Rank again.
March 5, 2010 at 7:12 pm
@sarkarinaukriindia: Page rank is not that important as getting higher search engine ranking. PR impacts only about 20 pct so I really don't spend too much time trying to get higher PR.
March 6, 2010 at 1:12 am
@sarkarinaukriindia: Page rank is not that important as getting higher search engine ranking. PR impacts only about 20 pct so I really don't spend too much time trying to get higher PR.