How to get PR4 in 11 short years

I know this guy. Let’s call him Melvin (not his real name). In 1996, Melvin decided he was going to register a website for his web design company (I won’t give you the URL, for the same reason I’m withholding Melvin’s real name). So that October, he hired someone to build him a simple 2 page website (Melvin can’t code himself - as a matter of fact, he’s been known to have anxiety attacks at the mere mention of the phrase “right-click”).

The front page of Melvin’s site displays an animation of the company’s logo (made in Director - I think the site pre-dates Flash) and a link to the site’s second page, a simple contact page where interested potential clients can send email to Melvin to tell him they’d like to hire him to be the visionary that leads them to global domination via the internet. As long as I’ve known Melvin & been aware of his site (at least 5 or 6 years now), his site hasn’t changed one iota.

By and large, Melvin hasn’t done anything right to bring web traffic his way. It’s an SEO nightmare. There are no META tags, there’s no content, and the only back links to the site appear on 2 of the sites he actually managed to build for clients. That seems to be the extent of his web presence.

Yet Melvin’s website has a Google Page Rank of 4/10, which is actually pretty respectable, especially considering how little work has gone into the site. Imagine what he might have if he actually did something with his site?

So what did Melvin do right? How is it possible he gets a PR that many small businesses would kill for?

Melvin stood the test of time. He picked a name & stuck with it, and the simple truth of the matter is that Google rewards persistence. Older websites are seen as more valuable that newer websites, and are therefore given naturally higher ranks.

How Can We Learn From What Melvin Did/Didn’t Do?

If you’re about to launch a new website, you might want to consider an old URL. They’re out there - sites with good names with owners that just don’t have the time to dedicate to them anymore. Drop the owner a line, make him/her an offer, see where it goes. You may be able to take advantage of their mileage and convert that into a higher Google PR for yourself.

If you want to use a brand new URL, take the time to consider if it’s flexible enough. International Business Machines (IBM) has a good flexible name. They can get involved in anything to do with businesses and machines anywhere in the world and their name still fits. But when they started up many years ago, their focus was on the then bleeding edge technologies like punch cards and adding machines. If they had opted to call themselves the Big Blue Punch Card & Adding Machine Company they’d look pretty darn silly nowadays. Make sure you pick a URL that won’t limit what you can do with your website too much should you decide to shift the site’s focus in a few years.

If you’ve already launched your site, do everything in your power to hold onto your name. Thinking of switching your name? Please reconsider. 99% percent of the time, when people find you on a search engine they’re not looking for the name of your company but rather the things that you offer on your site. Hopefully, you picked a name that’ll help stand the test of time, and sticking with it for a few years will give your site more relevance in the robot eyes of the search engines.