It was inevitable that, with another PageRank obsessive week in SEO, people would start calling to ditch PageRank, lose the PageRank display on the toolbar etc etc. I believe that all such arguments are flawed, and for a variety of reasons, that I’ll keep to two.

Firstly, there is the problem of measurement. What, exactly, is the problem that removing PageRank, form the toolbar or the algo, suppossed to solve? And what metrics do we use to measure this? Comscore data shows that, despite having over 50% of search, Google increased their market share in August, 2007. The most important metric (market share) seems to favour Google by a wide margin, so i can;t really see that any of this really hurting their bottom line.

The second flaw in the argument is that the removal of the PageRank display from the toolbar would somehow stop link buying. I disagree with this assessment completely, for the simple reason that the cat is out of the bag, and people know that links count in SE algorithms (including Yahoo, ASK and MSN’s). This fact makes link buying pretty much a permanent addition of the SEO arsenal. Removing the toolbar PR will only serve to obfuscate which links are best, with the net result that there will be more link buying (although likely at significantly reduced price points), as people are forced to guess. some might win, some might lose, but the game will continue on, regardless.

Removing the toolbar green bar also wouldn’t attack the specific problem of sellers, who are a tiny fraction of all sites and site owners. Rather, removing PageRank display from the toolbar would be analogous to cutting off one’s leg to kill a small wart on one toe. A PageRank drop targeted at sellers, on the other hand, hits people where it hurts most (the hip pocket), and makes it clear who they are targeting.

So far, I haven’t heard a coherent argument against PageRank, even on the toolbar, but I am listening, and willing to be convinced :)