A reader of our new blog noticed a directory advertising on other directories called apricot2008.net, on almost all of their link listings they say they have a PageRank 7. They also state this on their websites logo (at the time I write this).
Is this website trying to fool would be advertisers with a fake PageRank claim? It appears that is the case, however I believe it is a simple misunderstanding and lack of updating the website on the directory owners part.
The site apricot2008.net did have a PageRank of PR7 a few weeks ago, then the site has slipped to a PR4 for some reason or another. Why? I am not sure why. I do know that the website experienced an extended period of downtime and this may have been the reason that their PageRank has slipped.
It is very possible that the PageRank may climb back up in a month or two, or not. You never know.
Anyway, I suggest that the directory owner update the website logo and contact the directories they advertise on and have them edit their link details. It could make some people feel uneasy about placing bids if they find out the currently advertised PageRank is not valid.
Feel free to comment on this article if you are the site owner with your side of the story.
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I’m not the owner, but when this site first launched it was much higher - a PR7 I think. I agree the owner should update or it’s going to continue misleading people. One of the downsides of marketing your PR I guess.
In all senses of reality this is a good thing for Apricot2008. To be honest they are quite lucky that they did not loose all the pagerank. Since Google has updated their pagerank lately Apricot2008 should be showing indexes of a directory and the old indexes should be dropping off or have dropped off. This will make the domain valid for what ever pagerank it has.
In truth its makes me suspicious when I see a directory with a pagerank over 5. Reason being is that there are high quality sites that barely have a pagerank over 5. NFL.com is only a PR 7.
Just another dropped name looking to cash in on some quick bucks for its PR value. Eventually it will lose most of the PR and the directory will probably vanish.
I would not be at all shocked if the PR eventually drops down to PR2 or 1 in the next update. Domain names picked up like this and marketed usually deflate in about six months or so.
I originally paid for my bid on that directory when they had PR7 & they advertised on my own site at the same time. It does make the site look dodgy when they shout about being PR7 & the stats box shows PR4….buying a high ranked domain may work for getting quick cash in the short term, but surely in the medium to long term, it can only be detrimental.
I personally would prefer to build my sites page rank from 0 up - It took only one month to get a PR2 on my site & that was with very little traffic!