Google PageRank Removed From Google+ Pages

Google PageRank is something that many bloggers obsess over, since going up or down can predict a huge gain or loss in traffic.  When you’re relying on your blog to provide a steady income, this is a big deal.  Well, this doesn’t directly pertain to the livelihood of your blog, but it’s something to note: for whatever reason, Google PageRank has been removed from all Google+ Pages.

Google PageRank Removed From Google+ Pages

Why?  We’re not really sure.  The speculation is that Google did not purposely force all of their Google+ pages to have zero or no PageRank – this wouldn’t make any sense.  Google is trying to push Google+ in our faces, not take it out of the limelight, so bloggers around the net are coming to the consensus that someone must have made an oopsie.

More observant tech people have noted that Google Plus URLs recently changed – they used to be shorter, but now re-direct to something that looks more like this:

(The link goes to the TechWalls Google Plus Page)

https://plus.google.com/100456744122229823295/posts

What bloggers are hoping is that PageRank is still updating these links, and that they will return to normal soon.  While it doesn’t have any direct bearing on the traffic of your site, many blogs get referrals from Google+, and many of those referrals are from Google searches that lead to your page on Google+.  A lower PageRank for these pages means that they show up less often, which hurts your traffic.  But, I wouldn’t worry about it too much – Google has too much energy invested in Google+ to not do everything it can to promote it.

Google+ And PageRank

Perhaps, bear with me, the removal of PageRank from Google+ could point to something bigger – a move to a different approach in driving traffic to Google Plus.  If we take an honest, objective look at this new social media platform, it’s obvious that, despite the fact that it has been inundated with users, they don’t really stay active in their posting and adding people to circles.  The bottom line is: Google needs more people to start using Google +.

Maybe removing PageRank means that Google will create some alternate incentive to using Google+, or integrate it even further into the search process.  Just recently, Google added a “People related to ___ on Google+” sidebar that occasionally comes up when you search something that fits a certain criteria.  It’s obvious that the company is trying to promote their social media platform, and it may prove true that they are expanding this sidebar into more searches in order to reach more people and increase the amount of traffic that flows through Google+.  Google controls hundreds of millions of visitors on a regular basis, and they probably figure that it’s about time some of those people were redirected through their new social networking platform.