Anyone intimately involved in optimizing websites for the search engines knows that the Google Webmaster Tools utility is an invaluable part of monitoring your site. It’s easy to login and see your site’s position in all of the elements Google uses to rank your site.

One of those elements is PageRank which we’ve discussed some here – mainly in the context of link building and how web pages with higher PageRank carry more value.

But Search Engine Roundtable is confirming that Google is removing PageRank data from the Webmaster Tools utility. However, they will still keep the data in the Google Toolbar, which is a simple add-on tool available for download.

In responding to an inquiry about the change on Google’s Webmaster Help thread, an employee of the popular search engine stated that PageRank is not that important and advises webmasters not to focus on it so much.

Other webmasters and SEOs argue that if PageRank is something they shouldn’t focus on, why only remove it from the Webmaster Tools utility?

Of course any advice directly from Google should be taken with a grain of salt. For link building purposes, a website’s PageRank data can be some useful information.

While we agree it’s not the Holy Grail, PageRank is important to think about.