Understanding Google Page Rank

Understanding Google Page Rank

Page rank is another one of google’s patented algorithims – it assigns a
value to every page of every website in its index.

The page rank scale is usually described as going from 0 to 10, but in
reality, a webpage nearly always begins with a page rank of n/a, or not
applicable, which is even lower than pr 0.

But, how did page rank start, and why? Is it important to your search
engine rankings?

The page rank software was originally conceived by google godfathers,
Sergey Brin and Larry Page ( surprisingly, then, the term ‘page rank’
actually refers to Larry’s surname, not your page – or maybe it’s just
a play on words ). Here’s how it works:

When your webpage receives a high volume of incoming links, especially
links from high page rank pages ( or even from web pages on sites which
have high pr on their top level domain, or home page ), a degree of page
rank is then passed from their page to your page ( this is where the
theory of page rank bleed originates from ).

Contrary to appearances, a page rank 2 link is not twice as valuable as a
pr 1 link, for example.

It is more like this: one pr 2 link is equal to ten pr 1 links, one pr 3
link equals 10 pr 2 links, and so on – There is considerable power in high
page rank links.

So, high pr links can pass page rank to your website. But, are there other
factors that influence the page rank of your web pages?

Yes, the quality and quantity of your website content is another factor -
both from the perspective of attracting links from high pr websites, and
also for increasing the intrinsic value of your own website from google’s
standpoint.

You may be wondering, though, if page rank has much of an influence over
your position in the google index. After all, this is what counts.

The page rank of your page doesn’t necessarily improve it’s position in the
search engines – many times you will see low pr pages beating high pr pages
in the search engine results.

Page rank is a ranking factor, but it is only one of many, many factors that
affect your positioning in the serp’s.

If you have some high page rank links, then this will increase your own page
rank ( which is updated regularly ), but they may or may not increase your
rankings.

How could this be the case? Any high pr links have the potential to boost pr
on your pages, but only links with relevant keyword anchor text will pass
rank. A high pr website that isn’t ranking for anything is of very little use to
your business.

Ideally, you should have links that are both relevant in terms of anchor text,
and high in page rank – then your pages will get a boost in page rank, and,
more importantly, in search engine positioning.

But, how do you get links like this? This is the tough part – there are many
ways, but they are mostly very time consuming and extremely boring.