Google PageRank Updates

Posted on April 4, 2010 by

I’ve been waiting to see changes created by the update to Google PageRank scores which were schedule for the end of March.  On April 2nd I noticed that a dozens of my websites had their PageRank updated so it is a perfect time to revisit how this score can be used for Internet marketing strategies.

I manage a number of websites in the automotive industry and during this most recent PageRank update I noticed my Toyota Recall information website, which has been up for over 3 months,  changed from a PageRank 0 to a PageRank 4/10. In this most recent update, my car inventory sales website, Car Dealer Sale website went from a PageRank 0 to a PageRank 3/10.

PageRank Simplified

PageRank is a scale of a website’s overall “score” from Google and some debate the importance of this score. I like to use the PageRank score as a quick reflection on the overall health of a website.  This measure us the most accurate right after a recalculation has been completed.

You can use PageRank to perform a quick, high level comparision of multiple websites, or to consider if a website is a good place to post your articles.  Biznik has a Google PageRank of 6/10 which is very good and makes the case to participate in this network.  If the site had zero PageRank, posting article in the community may not be beneficial.

PageRank is a quick way to see if a website is new or weak. I recommend participating in blogging communities or article directory websites that have a PageRank of 3/10 or higher.  Since there are so many choices, investing in proven website platforms makes the most use of your unique content.

Google Toolbar

Install The Latest Google Toolbar

If you have not installed the LATEST Google Toolbar, I recommend that you do. Download It Here. The screen shot shown below shows you how the PageRank is displayed in the toolbar once you enable it.  The small green bar indicates the score and when you hover over the icon with your mouse the score will show.

Do you know the PageRank for your website?

If you have installed the Google Toolbar and the PageRank icon is not visible, you have to enable that feature.  Click on the wrench on the right hand side of the toolbar for the Google Toolbar Options, and click on the “options” menu choice.  The following screen will appear:

Google PageRank Settings

You must check off the PageRank box and save your changes.  This will enable the PageRank measurement tool.

What is a Good PageRank?

Most active business small business websites have a PageRank of 3 and very few have a PageRank of 4, 5 or higher.  Pagerank scores are affected by inbound links and traffic.   Business websites that have high PageRank scores (>5) often have implemented a strong offsite SEO link building strategies or have a highly trafficked website.

According to WikiPedia:

“PageRank is a link analysis algorithm, named after Larry Page,[1]  used by the Google Internet search engine that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set  of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of “measuring” its relative importance within the set. The algorithm may be applied to any collection of entities with reciprocal quotations and references. The numerical weight that it assigns to any given element E is also called the PageRank of E and denoted by PR(E).”

What is a Low PageRank Score

If your website has a PageRank of 0, 1, or 2 now that the recalculation has been completed, I would strongly encourage you to look at the number of high quality UNIQUE inbound links to your website.

You can get a count of these links by going to Yahoo, and tyeping in this command into the search box:

link:www.yourwebsite.com

Do not type in a space after the colon, and replace your website name for “yourwebsite.com”.

If you website is brand new and is under 90 days old, you would expect to have a low PageRank.  However, when the next recalculation takes place, if your score doesn’t jump, then you will need to take some remedial action.

Fixing Low PageRank Scores

If you want to compete in organic search results, you will need to increase relevant links to your websites for the search phrases you want to target in your digital marketing strategy.

For example, if you are a personal injury attorney in New Jersey, you would want to have hundreds of links from other websites with content that has hyperlinked text for the phrases:

  • New Jersey personal injury attorney
  • New Jersey personal injury lawyer
  • personal injury lawyer NJ
  • personal injury NJ

You get the idea; diversify the hyperlinked text and the source of those links.  They should not be coming from the same website.  Ideally, some of the links should come from blogs and websites that have a good deal of content about law, lawyers and personal injury matters.  That is were relevance comes into play.

Google updates the PageRank scores internally on a continual basis but a few times a year they make a massive update.  Some have said that these major updates happen every 3 months but that is a guess.

If you are not happy with your latest PageRank score, get started with a quality, off-site content writing program that includes links back to your website.  It will make a significant impact on your relevance, traffic and organic search rankings.

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Tasing the 2009 Mollydooker Wines in Australia

Posted on April 1, 2010 by

While on my trip to Australia,  Sarah and Sparky Marquis sat down with me to taste through the 2009 portfolio of Mollydooker wines. I was the first journalist to taste all the wines being offered from the 2009 growing season and the wines were outstanding.

I will be writing up my tasting notes on all 10 wines that will be offered for sale on www.mollydookerwines.com in the coming months. I have been working on Sarah and Sparky to offer members of WeLoveShiraz.com a special pre-ordering opportunity to make sure we secure a strong allocation of wines.

Sarah Thinks 2009 is Outstanding

I’m asking for early access to their 2009 wines because Sarah feels that the 2009 vintage produced the best grapes and best blended wines that she has ever made! I completely agree with her assessment and thus I think that the 2009 wines will be be receiving high scores and that normally results in scarcity of supply.

Keep posted over the coming week for an update if I was successful in my negotiations. Another reason why I’m pushing for a pre-sale offering is that for the first time there are magnums of Blue Eyed Boy Shiraz which was off the charts yesterday in our tasting. This wine was AMAZING and I would love to see our community get a good allocation of wine and some magnums.

Another piece of great news is that since Sarah and Sparky purchased their new winery two years ago, the vines that had been on the property have produced amazingly high quality fruit under the Marquis Watering Program. As a result, the grapes used for Blue Eyed Boy were from their estates at a lower cost. In a demonstration of their passion for their faithful fans, Mollydooker is lowering the 2009 prices on Blue Eyed Boy Shiraz and Gigglepot Cabernet from $55 to $49 a bottle because of their lower costs.

I challenge anyone to find a higher quality wine experience for $49. Once you taste the 2009 Party Series wines, you will understand that affirmation.

I Rate The 2009 Boxer Shiraz 96 Points

As a sneak peek, the 2009 Boxer Shiraz was by far the BEST Boxer ever produced and keep in mind that previous Boxer vintages have received 95 point scores. Without a doubt, the 2009 Boxer is my BEST VALUE WINE in the world. That’s right, I said the world. Nowhere I have found since an amazing wine experience for $25 a bottle. If this wine was produced from a boutique Napa winery, it would sell for $100 a bottle.

So, keep posted and I will be loading up my video tasting notes for each wine on www.weloveshiraz.com in the coming days. Please pass the word about WeLoveShiraz to your friends and ask them to join our community. The fun has just started!

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Car Dealer Sale

Posted on March 19, 2010 by

Car dealers who are looking for new ways to market their cars online now have a new choice; the Automotive Advertising Network (AAN).  The AAN gives car dealers a chance to advertise their cars nationally, regionally and locally for one low price.

In the past, car dealers invested their marketing dollars to buy their largest ad in local newspapers or the most TV spots in their market.  Today, succcessful dealers need their cars and brand to appear at the top of the search engines for the most popular search phrases in their market.

The Automotive Advertising Network is built on that premise.  The AAN gives car dealers a significant increase in the visibility of their most valuable asset; their cars.  The network allows their cars to get in front of consumers who read blogs, research online or spend time on social media websites like Facebook.

On the national level new and used cars will be presented to consumers on  www.cardealersale.com.  The website allows consumers to show for cars, trucks and SUV’s by zipcode or by brand.  The car detail landing pages are clean and free from excessive advertising gimmicks used by many car advertising portals.

As dealers move more of the traditional advertising budgets to digital marketing solutions, the AAN give dealers a strong reason to start that change sooner than later.  A key element of the AAN is the Automotive SEO architecture of the websites in the network.  Over 300 regional websites are in the network targeting the top 300 cities in the United States.

CarPort App

In addition, the AAN include CarPort App™, a tool which allows car dealers unlimited advertising of their vehicles on Facebook, blog  posts and social media websites.  CarPort App™ creates “timeless” content marketing articles on popular blogs like WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Vox and social media platforms like NING.

The tool inserts specific vehicles into a blog article and every time the article is viewed by a consumer, the most current inventory is shown.  An blog post covering the release of a new car model starts as a “new” car marketing article and the following year automotically turns into a “used” car marketing article.

AAN Introductory Pricing

Introductory pricing for the Automotive Advertising Network and CarPort App™ is $495 a month through June 1, 2010 after which the cost will be $795 a month.  Dealers who are interested in signing up for this exciting advertising solution can call PCG Digital Marketing at 732.450.8200.

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Pasch Consulting Group Expands With New Name

Posted on February 11, 2010 by

The Pasch Consulting Group (PCG) announces a change in their corporate identity and branding strategy.

The company will be known as PCG Digital Marketing with their new logo and marketing strategy to be unveiled in Orlando at the 2010 NADA Conference. All of their forthcoming marketing elements will also be branded with their new tagline, ‘Strategic Digital Marketing’.  

According to CEO Brian Pasch, the rebranding of his formerly self-titled company reflects their rapid growth in the marketplace as well as their ability to provide a comprehensive team approach to digital marketing solutions for a very diverse range of clients. 

“When we reviewed our business growth over the past four years, Search Engine Optimization and Website Design were just two of the services we’ve been providing. The term ‘digital marketing’ better reflects the scope of services and strategies we can implement for our clients which includes social media, paid advertising, branding and marketing strategies,” adds Pasch.

The digital marketing strategies provided by the PCG Digital Marketing Team includes leveraging social networking, blogging, Internet PR, Reputation Management, and microsite marketing, to name a few. According to Pasch, each strategy is custom tailored to the client’s goals and budgets. “We are a partner at the marketing planning table to see which digital strategies can bring the most benefit to the client.”

Brian Pasch has long been the public face and name behind the company’s remarkable success. He in an active writer on blogs and forums dedicated to digital marketing best practices, and is a nationwide speaker and educator at many of the automotive industry’s foremost conferences. Nevertheless, Pasch insists his company’s success is the result of a team effort complemented by his expanding team of professionals and industry experts.

PCG Digital Marketing will continue to serve varying industries including the auto community, legal, medical, manufacturing and retail. Their ability to provide strategic digital solutions to a number of diverse industries demonstrates the depth and breadth of their digital marketing knowledge. 

Coinciding with the name company’s rebranding is the promotion of Matthew O’Such to VP of Sales and also the addition of Tom Cowell as VP of Business Operations. The name change and shift in staff is consistent with CEO Brian Pasch’s commitment to providing excellent customer service and support as their clients leverage the ever-changing opportunities that exist in digital marketing.

For additional information on PCG Digital Marketing call 732-450-8200 or visit www.pcgdigitalmarketing.com

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Chrysler Targets Consumers Searching Toyota Recall

Posted on January 27, 2010 by

I’ve been covering the Toyota recall story lately and our consumer blog at www.toyotarecall.org has some very interesting comments from consumers on the Q&A page.

I would recommend that you scan some of the comments because they show the fear, confusion and anger that is building across America.

What Toyota dealers should be doing this week in their local media is a topic for a coming post. In the meantime….

While I was searching the phrase “Toyota Recall” in Google I saw that Chrysler was using this surge in search traffic to tell their safety and quality story. See the screen shot below:

toyota-recall-ppc

Obviously Chrysler is trying to leverage the search traffic to drive their brand message and to drive consumers to their website.

Do you think this is a good strategy for Chrysler to pursue? Share you thoughts.

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