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Matt Cutts works at the Googleplex and at his blog he writes about Google and search engine optimization traps. In one of his latest blog posts, Matt Cutts wrote about Google's PageRank.

Here are the most important statements about Google's PageRank:

PageRank is not a number between 1 and 10.

"It’s more accurate to think of it as a floating-point number. Certainly our internal PageRank computations have many more degrees of resolution than the 0-10 values shown in the toolbar."

The PageRank number that is displayed in the toolbar does not influence the search results.

"At any given time, a url in Google’s system has up-to-date PageRank as a result of running the computation with the inputs to the algorithm. From time-to-time, that internal PageRank value is exported so that it’s visible to Google Toolbar users. [...]

By the time you see newer PageRanks in the toolbar, those values have already been incorporated in how we score/rank our search results. So while you may be happy to see that the Google Toolbar shows a little more PageRank for a given page, it’s not as if that causes a change in search results at that point."

You don't have to care about the PageRank number.

"I think that’s a perfectly healthy attitude. If you don’t care about PageRank and your site is doing well, that’s fine by me. :)"

The PageRank number displayed in Google's toolbar is already outdated on the day it is published. It's not important that Google's toolbar displays a green line for your web site URL. It is important that you get visitors and that these visitors purchase something on your site.

What is the date of the backlinks update on Google?

"If you’re splitting hairs about the exact date that backlinks were taken from, you’re probably suffering from “B.O.” (backlink obsession) and should stop and go do something else for a bit until the backlink obsession passes.

I highly recommend keyword analysis, looking at server logs to figure out new content to add, thinking of new hooks to make your site attract more word-of-mouth buzz, pondering how to improve conversion once visitors land on your site, etc."

The last statement is a very important point. You have to work on all web page elements to get good results. It doesn't help very much if you focus on a single element.

Link building is very important but it is not the only important factor for search engine optimization.

It is important to work with all elements of your web site. Fortunately, IBP can help you with all important search engine optimization aspects. Just take a look at the IBP manual that can be selected in the "Help" menu of IBP 9.2. The easy-to-read manual guides you step-by-step through the entire search engine optimization process.

If you do the right things in the right order then your web site will get the best possible rankings on Google, Yahoo and other search engines.

Google snaps up YouTube for $1.65B

"Internet search leader Google is snapping up YouTube for $1.65 billion, brushing aside copyright concerns to seize a starring role in the online video revolution."

Google courts developers

"Google introduces a search engine tuned to find publicly available source code."

"Microsoft plans to place advertising on MSN's Windows Live Search for Mobile service that will let users click on an advertisement to place a call for more information."

Search engine newslets

• A preview of the new AOL Search is available.
• How Google Q&A works.
• Google underwhelms with "More About..." links in Gmail.
• The Google blog has been hacked right after a blog entry about security.
• Google Movies shows movie showtimes.
• Google launches literacy project to link resources.
• RSS Smart Answers are now available on international Ask.com sites.
• Google released a new beta of Google Groups.

A gaggle of Google wannabes

"Ask.com and other challengers hope to pull share from Google with new search methods, but it won't be easy to unseat the market leader."

Ask Jeeves about Teoma

"Teoma was a research project at IBM that morphed into a Rutgers research project that turned into a failing dot-com. It got bought by Ask.com for $4.4 million [...] This year, Ask.com essentially became Teoma, and that has made Ask.com into the most interesting challenger to Google in search."

Online click fraud proves perilous

"Online pay-per-click advertising helped Diana Frerick and Kevin Steele turn their $200,000-a-year Phoenix, Ariz.-based karaoke business into a nearly $3 million retail operation. Online "click fraud" almost forced them to shut their doors."

Google puts lid on new products

"In another sign of Google Inc.'s growth from start-up to corporate behemoth, the company's top executives said Thursday that they had begun telling engineers to stop launching so many new services and instead focus on making existing ones work together better."

We're looking for a web application software developer (Python/PHP/Ajax/MySQL) and an employee for software translation and customer support (French).

Both jobs are located in our new offices in Montabaur, Germany. Telecommuting is not possible.

• Further information about us
• Further information about the jobs (German)

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• Six reasons why search engines ignore your web pages
• How to get out of Google's supplemental results
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