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My google PR recently dropped from 6 to 4 on my index page. Is this something to worry about or just the monthly google dance?

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Dani AI

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Quick summary for the thread: short-term PR swings (the old “Google dance”) happen, but a sustained drop after a forum migration usually points to broken/duplicated URLs and canonicalization problems — exactly what can happen when phpBB2 -> vBulletin changes old thread links. Check which URL Google treats as canonical (slash vs index.php, www vs non‑www) and inspect affected pages in Search Console so you know whether Google is seeing 404s, redirects, or a duplicate version. (developers.google.com)

Concrete steps to fix and recover link value:

  • Build a one-to-one redirect map from old URLs to the new equivalents and implement server-side 301s (not JavaScript/meta refresh). Keep those redirects in place for at least several months (ideally a year+) and avoid redirect chains. Google will consolidate signals to the final URL when redirects are done correctly. (developers.google.com)
  • Update internal links and your XML sitemap to point to the canonical URLs, then submit the sitemap and use the URL Inspection tool to request reindexing of priority pages. Monitor Coverage and Performance reports to spot remaining problems. (developers.google.com)

A small, safe .htaccess example to illustrate the idea (adapt to your server and test on staging):

# force canonical index (example)
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /index\.php [NC]
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ / [R=301,L]

# force www (example)
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.example\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Make a full URL-to-URL map for forum threads (phpBB patterns -> vBulletin patterns) and test a sample set with the Google URL Inspection tool before rolling out site-wide. (developers.google.com)

Notes on PageRank and links: public toolbar PageRank values are no longer a reliable metric (the toolbar feed was removed years ago), so focus on traffic, rankings and Search Console signals rather than a single PR number. Reciprocal link pages can help some referral traffic (as suggested), but avoid large-scale link exchanges or paid links that aren’t properly disclosed — those can trigger link‑spam actions. Aim for relevant, editorial links and fix technical issues first. (searchengineland.com)

Relevant mentions: (migration), (URL variants), (PR usefulness) and (links) — the practical next move is a redirect map + Search Console checks, then monitor performance while keeping redirects in place.

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Member Avatar for himerus

My google PR recently dropped from 6 to 4 on my index page. Is this something to worry about or just the monthly google dance?

With a couple of my sites, I always notice a difference in the PR for 2 different versions of the index pages.

For example, has a PR of 5, but
only has a PR of 0!!!

Google treats www.domain.com and www.domain.com/index.html as completely different pages.

I thought I'd throw this out there, in case you were looking at a different version of your page!

One of my other sites () had a PR of 6 without the index.php, and a PR of 4 without it... just sounded like the same issue maybe.


If that's not the problem... a drop of 2 PR points can be very costly to overall traffic in my experience with google. But, on the other hand... google has been acting strangely lately... a couple of months ago, they lost all PR data, and were using a copy that was recorded months prior.... I'm a member at which is great for search engine info... it's where I keep up with all my google woes... :cry:

Hope this helps... the forums are great!!! :D

Member Avatar for himerus

Oh, and it (PR) can differ from datacenter to datacenter, so if google is in the middle of the dance, you might see some crazy changes that won't be there in a day or 2

Member Avatar for Dani

Hey there! Thanks for all the help. I already know about the difference between / and /index.html

I'm sure that the drop in PR is at least, in part, related to the fact that I have recently switched from phpBB2 over to vBulletin, and therefore many old google-indexed URLs are broken.

However, my index.html page has never changed name, and I'm very worried about its low PR :( To offset the inevitable drop in traffic, I am spending a bit more than my norm on ppc Overture and Google AdWords this month.

Member Avatar for Dani

Ooh, and one more thing. I think the google dance just finished, didn't it? At least that's what those guys over at www.webmasterworld.com are saying.

I no longer use subdomains due to the PR conflict with google. When I used to, I would always forward them server-side over to a subdirectory of the www domain, in hopes of avoiding the PR problem.

Member Avatar for Dani

btw, heads up on the link. I just checked it out and it seems I'm going to be a frequent visitor of that place!

Member Avatar for beeman81

Just thought I'd tell you I don't think it's uncommon to have "irregular" PR. Mine is usually at 6, but not too long ago I stayed at 4 for one or two days.

By the way... What is PR good for anyways. I have a really crappy page rank at all the search engines. Can it be because my site is fairly new (put it up in June this year)? I'd love to have a better pagerank.

If someone knows anything about this, please tell me. If you've got lots of time on your hands, head over to my site too and tell me if you see something wrong!

Member Avatar for Dani

PR is Google's ranking of how important/relavant a page is. It's ranked based on how many sites of similar content link to you, in addition to how many sites of similar content and HIGHER PR your page links out to.

PR is used in Google's ranking in search engines. For example, out of 2 pages that are equally relevant to a search query, the one with a PR of 7 will be shown 1st while the one with a PR of 1 or 2 will be shown way down on the search result page.

Member Avatar for Dani

beeman, I split your post into a separate thread :)

[thread]1019[/thread]

Member Avatar for KevinFox

I have only learned tonight of the existance of PR numbers and that you can get them. Can you tell me how I can find out the PR of my own site and others? I have a Mac. Thank You.

Kevin

Member Avatar for himerus

you should download the google toolbar at

I think they have a mac version? I may be wrong....

Member Avatar for Dani

Unfortunately I don't believe the google toolbar is mac compatible. Instead, the google search form in addition to a popup blocker are built into Apple's Safari browser, with no way of knowing a site's PR.

Member Avatar for himerus

you are right....

I have a Mac. Can I install the Google Toolbar?

The Google Toolbar is not currently available for the Mac. The good news though, is that Apple's Safari browser offers a Google search box, enabling you to perform Google searches directly from your address bar. Safari can be downloaded for free from http://www.apple.com/safari/ . Safari also can be configured to perform Google searches from its address bar. To learn how, visit .

I'm not a mac person so I actually had to go and check. :)

Member Avatar for Dani

Alternatively, google does offer this nifty trick for Mac OS X users:

In OS X, you can register Google as a service available to all applications under the application menu. Install the Google Service and you will be able to select text in any application and press Shift-Cmd-G to launch a Google search for that text.

Member Avatar for Dani

Yay! This is great news ... I just noticed www.daniweb.com hit a PR of 7 today. My forum homepage has PR 6. I hope this stays for the long haul and isn't just a google dance.

Member Avatar for Dani

Darn do I love the google dance! daniweb just went back to PR4 and techtalkforums just went back to PR5. It was great while it lasted!

Member Avatar for ajax-the-techie

Ajax's 2 cents: Have you considered building yourself a links page and filling it with links from sites that have good PR in exchange for a link back from them? As long as you keep the content closely enough related to the sites you reciprocate links with then you should be fine. Bear in mind that, for the most part, they won't be linking from the index page, but instead through a links page and the PR of that page may be low. If you stick to at least 3PR or higher link backs then you'll probably do alright.


Just thought I'd tell you I don't think it's uncommon to have "irregular" PR. Mine is usually at 6, but not too long ago I stayed at 4 for one or two days.

By the way... What is PR good for anyways. I have a really crappy page rank at all the search engines. Can it be because my site is fairly new (put it up in June this year)? I'd love to have a better pagerank.

If someone knows anything about this, please tell me. If you've got lots of time on your hands, head over to my site too and tell me if you see something wrong!

Member Avatar for Dani

We already have that. Just look at the footer of any page around here and you will find our Link Directories. :)

Member Avatar for ajax-the-techie

I was refering to another post. The site that beeman runs. It's a suggestion for him and a damn good way to boost PR AND traffic.:)

Member Avatar for I, Brian

PR is interesting, but I wouldn't at all give it the repsect it used to have. I just lost PR 6 to 5 on a couple of my big sites - yet their rankings for primary keywords is up and so is traffic by 30%. If PR was the God it used to be, this should not be the case.

Member Avatar for ajax-the-techie

If I may ask, what have you done in terms of marketing your site in the past month? There may be a good reason for the PR drop that you don't see yet....PR is important, but so are other traffic increasing means that you are obviously getting benefit from.

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