Google has decided that it is removing Toolbar PageRank from its browser. If you are using a Google toolbar or an extension or a browser that shows you PageRank data from Google, within the next couple weeks it will begin not to show any data at all. For some Google toolbar users, the visible PageRank has already been removed. But it may remain active on some toolbars although the removal roll out continues.
Google has explained that the company will still be using PageRank data internally within its ranking algorithm. However, the external PageRank values shown in the Toolbar are going away completely. That means just that it is regular people like you, and me won’t be able to see it.
Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, John Mueller says,
“No, this update does not change anything for webmasters or SEOs in how their sites show up in search. Webmasters can use Search Console to get details about their content’s presence in Google Search, including information about links pointing to their sites. As the Internet and our understanding of the Internet have grown in complexity, the Toolbar PageRank score has become less useful to users as a single isolated metric. Retiring the PageRank display from Toolbar helps avoid confusing users and webmasters about the significance of the metric.”
For many years, Google has excludes away PageRank from their Toolbars and browsers and hasn’t updated the PageRank score in it in years.
Why Google Removing Toolbar PageRank?
2013 PageRank update would be the last and also that one was an unexpected update after Google fixed another issue that resulted in the update.
That also solves the problem many sites were seeing when they switched from http to https. They were losing their heritage PageRank from http since it would not transfer over to the https URL. Some websites were indicated “loss of PageRank” while it was actually only the visible PageRank. This is for a reason, not to switch sites to the secure https.
Link sellers are still selling links based on what PR value they are. If PageRank gone that valuable metric can no longer be used by sellers.
Still endless SEO tips being given out based on the outdated public PageRank, showing that a metric years old still has considerable influence. Although much of it due to misunderstanding of what PageRank is, why it is important and what the visible PageRank actually means.
