Will We See The 2014 Google PageRank Update?

We’re already starting to see the articles being published everywhere, everyone asking when will the 2014 Google PageRank update will come. Around this time in 2013, we were hearing the same thing. The Google Toolbar PageRank has often been considered a major ranking factor in terms of SEO. I’ve never thought that personally. If PageRank was an important factor in the algorithm, why would Google go on not updating the Toolbar PageRank? They wouldn’t, if the 2014 Google Toolbar PageRank update never comes, it won’t be that big of a deal.

Google’s John Mueller was recently spotted on Google Hangouts. An upset individual was asking about some websites selling high PR links. They wanted to know why Google hadn’t put these large link websites in their place. John Mueller responded with this;

“There are a few things where we do take action that you might not see directly. Toolbar PageRank is something that we have not updated for about a year now, and we’re probably not going to be updating it going forward… we have a lot of way to recognize these problematic links, and the sites selling those links, that essentially blocks the PageRank from passing through those sites.”

We did learn that Google has measurements in place that don’t allow PageRank to be passed through the links if the link is considered to be spam. Nothing new to learn about Google not updating the Toolbar PageRank. We’ve been hearing about this for years and we’ve always seen a PageRank update. I wouldn’t be surprised if Google does an update. It may not come in 2014, but I don’t think Google is done with Toolbar PageRank.

This brings up two concerns really. If we don’t see the 2014 Google PageRank update, does it mean that PageRank is no longer a ranking factor? If we don’t see the Toolbar PageRank updated in 2014, will it be updated in 2015? Many questions left unanswered but it does appear that PageRank is becoming less of a ranking factor. That I’m pretty sure on.

I don’t doubt that Google PageRank does play a role in your search engine rankings. If Google never does a PageRank update again, they will likely still give websites some favor for PR, right? Is that fair for up and coming websites? We knew this was coming with Google’s recent changes to link algorithms. Relevance and authority are two big ranking factors in links. Google already told us that each link is like a vote. Basically, when you link to a website, your endorsing that particular website.

Considering all the recent changes, Google will one day end all Google Toolbar updates once and for all. As for the 2014 Google PageRank update, only time will tell. As of December 25th, there’s still no Google update.