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Ebuntor
January 7th, 2008, 01:53 PM
Hi,

I was planning on helping some friends with their site, redesigning the layout and adding new content etc.
They were worried about me changing anything because:

Every page has a code that is linked to a ranking on Google. If you make any changes to the page the ranking changes. As I understand it Google's PageRank works by assigning every website a rank based upon links found on the pages. I'm not entirely sure what she means by "code" (the page's source code or the URL?) but could she be right? I thought that if you keep the same links on a page with the same URL it's ok.

If you'd lose your rank simply by making a few changes how could popular websites ever make any updates or improvements?
Ebuntor
January 7th, 2008, 07:37 PM
*bump*
Lostincyberspace
January 7th, 2008, 07:50 PM
It counts the links to the site not from the site and uses the meta tags to set what search terms it uses.
Ebuntor
January 7th, 2008, 08:19 PM
It counts the links to the site not from the site and uses the meta tags to set what search terms it uses.

Yeah, to the site, that's what I meant actually, sorry.

So if I understand correctly no matter what changes are made to the site it will maintain it's rank. Of course as long as other websites keep their links to this website.

And could the meta tags change if any changes are made to the content and if so could this negatively effect the search results?
edd07
January 7th, 2008, 08:31 PM
And could the meta tags change if any changes are made to the content and if so could this negatively effect the search results?
I think you're safe. The meta tags are defined in the <head> section of the page, so changes to content won't alter them.

Hope this helps
Sam
January 7th, 2008, 08:44 PM
It's a bit more complicated. Read this (http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.html) !
Ebuntor
January 7th, 2008, 09:08 PM
I think you're safe. The meta tags are defined in the <head> section of the page, so changes to content won't alter them.

Hope this helps

Sure helps, thank you.


It's a bit more complicated. Read this (http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.html) !

Thanks, I found that same page a few minutes ago. Very clear the rank is totally unrelated to the page itself or it's content.
Lostincyberspace
January 7th, 2008, 10:25 PM
Yes that pretty much sums it up.
PartisanEntity
January 7th, 2008, 10:49 PM
Google offers a unique code snippet that a webmaster must add to pages he/she would like indexed. This code snippet should be maintained.
Ebuntor
January 7th, 2008, 10:57 PM
Google offers a unique code snippet that a webmaster must add to pages he/she would like indexed. This code snippet should be maintained.

I thought there were only special pieces of code to block bots and that you'd always be automatically indexed.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8459
koenn
January 7th, 2008, 11:10 PM
Google offers a unique code snippet that a webmaster must add to pages he/she would like indexed. This code snippet should be maintained.

This code is to verify that you're the site owner, when you submit a sitemap.
Google indexes pages by urls found in the sitemap, or by links from other pages.
Ebuntor
January 7th, 2008, 11:16 PM
This code is to verify that you're the site owner, when you submit a sitemap.
Google indexes pages by urls found in the sitemap, or by links from other pages.

I see, I've never heard about that, nor can I find on the Google website. Would it theoretically speaking just be a matter of copy-pasting such a piece of code?

I doubt those friends of mine used this for their site. As I understand it it isn't even really necessary.
boban
January 7th, 2008, 11:21 PM
And another thing - PageRank is 10 years old. After publishing some initial (e.g. this one) (http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/page98pagerank.html) papers Google went commercial. I think that nobody outside the company know what algorithm they are using now...
koenn
January 7th, 2008, 11:46 PM
I see, I've never heard about that, nor can I find on the Google website. Would it theoretically speaking just be a matter of copy-pasting such a piece of code?

I doubt those friends of mine used this for their site. As I understand it it isn't even really necessary.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40318

when you want to use Google Webmaster Tools (such as submitting a sitemap), google gives you a unique code that you paste in the home page of the site.
Ebuntor
January 7th, 2008, 11:57 PM
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40318

when you want to use Google Webmaster Tools (such as submitting a sitemap), google gives you a unique code that you paste in the home page of the site.

Great, thank you. :)

I've got a much clearer picture of all the ranking and indexing stuff. Thanks everyone.