When I started this blog in the winter of 07, the blog quickly got a PR of 4, and it stayed that way until I stopped for the summer and it dropped to a 2. In the fall of 08 I started again, and the PR remained a 2 all the way until January-February when I stopped. I come back now in April, and guess what, My PR went up during the last update to 3. That’s very exciting, but also pretty confusing, what did I do wrong from September-February, that got fixed… when I stopped blogging…? The whole topic of PR can be pretty confusing sometimes, so in this article I will explain this seemingly odd phenomena, and also give you some tips to help you better understand how to work with it.
Riding the waves of Page Rank
Do you see that little guy? That’s you. That little man is you, and that wave is Google, the blog world King. The foam everywhere, is PR. Page Rank is everywhere, and often it seems like it’s in places where it shouldn’t be. If you see to the right side of the picture, the waves are covered with foam, all the way to the top. While on the left side, the foam is only at the bottom, and there’s a large, glaring vacancy of foam near the top. This picture kind of describes the blogosphere. There are some people riding the tops of the waves doing very well. Most people are somewhere in the middle or near the bottom of the wave. And all the still water in front, is dormant blogs. As you already know, there are far more vacant blogs than active ones, hence the larger amount of still water. Now you’re probably wondering what this had to do with PR, I will explain.
If your blog is at the top of the blogwave, then theroetically you should have a high PR correct? Wrong. See the left side where there’s almost no foam? Those are the John Chows, successful blogs at the top, but low PR. While on the right you’ve got the probloggers, and Steve Pavlinas who have high PRs.
The first thing I want to say about PR is this, patience. I was doing all the right things to get a higher PR, but starting in September, the update was in October, so I hadn’t done enough yet to be rewarded. The next was in January, and I was right on the borderline of being moved up, and finally in March I was rewarded. Was that because my being gone helped the blog? No. Remember, these things take several months to update. You may have a higher PR ranking a week after the update, but your score won’t change until the update does. So the lesson I learned and give to you is patience, if you’re doing the right things, and more importantly avoiding the wrong things, than your PR will improve.
Another tip, stick around! Yeah, I know I’m not one to speak, but blogs get higher PR with age. My search engine results all improved from when I was last blogging, search engines yield to older blogs. Again this is just another one of the right things you need to do.
The most important thing of all to do, is to not do what you shouldn’t do. Learn from John Chow. Don’t use those bidveritisers sites, they destroy your PR, for years to come. My favorite example is Blogger Noob. Hes got a large readership, lots of visitors and subscribers, but he’s still paying the price for using the wrong sites. He’s got a big fat 0 for his PR, and he’s got tons more links than I do. “It takes years to build a blog, it takes weeks to destroy one.” You can quote me on that 
So remember, if you’re frustrated in your PR expedition, be patient, keep doing the right things, and justice will be done. Those sites that are brand new and get a PR 4 a week later, they will happen, I know several myself. Online Bull is a great example, it got a PR 4 out of no where. Nothing against the guy, I like the blogger, but now he’s at a PR of 1. A much more fitting ranking for his site. Over time the internet evens out fairly.
So be patient, keep gathering the right connections, and avoid the wrong crowd. Lol sounds like a mother’s doesn’t it?
Cool, there is actually some great ideas on here some of my subscribers may find this relevant, I will send them a link, many thanks.
“It takes years to build a blog, it takes weeks to destroy one.” ]
This really scares me. If any one has more tips on what I should stay away from please post.
In my opinion Page Rank isn’t always a good correlation of success and is not worth worrying about.
Cory@Learn SEO´s last blog ..A Common Question and Answer about SEO: How Long?
I agree with everything you said. I’ve seen this happen so many times where a site has received a fantastic PR score even though it’s only just gone live. It always settles back down though. Hopefully it won’t happen to my site though!