PageRank is Google’s measure of importance assigned to a web page on a scale of 1 to 10. You can check the PageRank value of any page by downloading the Google Toolbar.

PageRank is a secret algorithm which Google defines as: "...PageRank continues to provide the basis for all of our web search tools."

Google also states: "Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query."

 

PageRank is passed through links. Each page only has so much PageRank which it can pass to other web documents. A dampening factor (approximately 85%) is set to allow the current pages PageRank to propagate through the rest of the web, while preventing all we pages from being ranked at a 10 or a 0.

The off going PageRank is split up between all links on that page (including links to other pages within that site). Therefore a PR 5 link on a page with 10 links is worth way more than a couple PR 5 link on a page with 100 links. One PR 8 link may be worth more than a thousand PR 3 links.

The value of any given link is hard to determine exactly. Generally though less links on a page means that more of that pages PageRank will be parsed out to your site. Also the higher the PageRank of a page the more PageRank it can pass on to other pages.

A page does not lose PageRank by linking out to other sites (unless it links out to penalized sites), it just has less PageRank to share amongst the other documents it is linking to.

 

PageRank and New Sites:

Another problem with PageRank is that it presents a bias against new web sites. Currently Google gives new sites a boost to make up for this, but mixing the new web pages in is very hard to do. Obviously the Google algorithm errors on to be at least slightly biased toward PageRank, otherwise they would undermine their entire ranking system.

While some fields (such as internet marketing) may be over represented in the web as a whole usually the best ideas in any field are the ones which gain high link popularity. Where PageRank really falls apart is when people rent or sell links across fields.

Build Link Popularity to Increase PageRank

Building Link Popularity is one of the most critical aspects of search engine marketing. While manipulation of PageRank is not easy, it is not difficult to enhance it by improving your link popularity. By undertaking a long-term link building campaign, you can boost your site’s PageRank and improve your site ranking significantly.