PageRank Is Dead—So Why Are People Still Using It?

I remember when PageRank was the gold standard for measuring a site's authority. Google officially retired it years ago, but I still come across founders trying to dig up old PR data to assess domain quality.

The reality is, relying on legacy metrics can be misleading. A site that had a high PageRank in 2013 might now be a spam farm with expired SSL certs and broken redirects.

Last week, I was vetting a potential guest post opportunity. The domain had a decent PageRank history according to cached data, but when I ran it through a real-time audit, I found:

• Missing security headers
• A suspicious backlink profile
• Poor page speed scores

That's why I built a simple tool that checks historical Google PageRank data and compares it with live Trust Rate scores. It gives me a more honest picture of domain health.

Here's what I look at now before collaborating with any site:

• Legacy PageRank (for context, not decisions)
• Current SSL and security headers
• Backlink quality and anchor text distribution
• Domain age and ownership history
• Real-time Trust Rate from SERPSpur

Curious—do you still consider PageRank when evaluating domains, or have you moved on to newer metrics?
https://serpspur.com/tool/google-pagerank-checker/