Over the past few days, many webmasters and SEOs have been noticing an update to the PageRank score found in the Google Toolbar. Usually PageRank updates aren’t that noteworthy, but it seems something is different about this PageRank update

In particular, it has been a really long time since I’ve witnessed such widespread discussion about a PageRank update. I have been writing about PageRank updates since 2003 and been discussing them with other webmasters years before that. The last time I have seen this much discussion was in the times of the Google Dance, when toolbar PageRank updates actually coincided with ranking changes. Those days are long gone, but yet, SEOs and webmasters seem to be even more obsessed with a toolbar PageRank update. (FYI, I am one of those that believe we should not obsess about PageRank, let alone new toolbar PageRank updates.)

I have asked Google for a comment about this PageRank update since this is sparking such discussion. I will leave it open to discussion at our Sphinn forums, where several threads on the subject have started, such as this one.

My advice remains the same as always. Do not worry about PageRank. Try focusing on building out a better site with better content and a better community.

Related Topics: Google: SEO

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz