Search Engine Optimisation Articles

What is Google PageRank?

Well, firstly you should have a look at Google's explanation: PageRankTM Explained

PageRank is basically a means by which Google ranks pages. Funnily enough.

This article will not go into the technical aspects of algorithm used to calculate PageRank because any references to it are several years old (it gets tweaked every month) and quite frankly I don't really understand the formula, let alone explain it to you!

So, this article will look at some of the effects that PageRank has on your site and some of the issues surrounding it.

So how do I check my sites PageRank?

You can use Google's Toolbar to check the PageRankTM of the page you are currently viewing in your browser.

You can download Google's Toolbar here: Google Toolbar

The little green bar on the toolbar indicates what your PR is. In this case, http://www.google.com has a PR10 (10 is the maximum).

So what does it all mean?

Well, the basics of it are that Google considers a link from another site to your site as a "vote" for your page, and your PR will reflect how many "votes" you have.

It is known that Google use PR as one of the many factors taken into account when ranking your page for any given search term. However it is not known to what extent that PR actually effects your ranking.

In order to increase your PR, you have to get many incoming links from other sites. A good average PR is 4, and a 5 or a 6 are good.

To put it into context here are a few sites and their PR:

• Google (PR10)
• Open Directory Project (PR9)
• MSN (PR9)
• BBC (PR9)

These are all huge sites that have tonnes of inbound links (use the Google Toolbar, select the page info menu and then "backward links" to see who links to the site you are viewing).

So I just get lot's of people to link to me, right?

Er, well yes.

But it's not as simple as that.

PR is carefully monitored by Google and any attempts to misuse it to gain particularly good rankings will result in a penalty from Google (removed from their index altogether).

For example, linking every page in each of your 20 sites to every other page in each of your 20 sites may seem clever, but it is considered to be interlinking and is penalised.

General rule of thumb - no matter how clever you think you may be - Google has a legion of PhDs on staff that are smarter. You will get caught, so play by the rules - Google is a good source of traffic for websites, so if you want that then you need to play fair!

For good advice on how to build your site and make it Google friendly, then check their advice page for webmasters: Google's webmaster guidelines

PR and your marketing strategy

You should use PR as a method of measuring your inbound link strategy, rather than using it as the basis for your web marketing strategy.

It is not 100% accurate and no-one outside of Google really knows how it works, or how much it influences your rankings.

What we do know that the more links the better, and that it is more beneficial to have links from related sites than from unrelated ones.

But this is basic marketing.

Why have 1000 links from sites that aren't related to yours? Your sales conversion rate will be appalling.

You should really not be too concerned about your sites PR. If it is low (less than 4) then you need to really work on getting quality (ie, related) inbound links. If it is average or high, well more inbound links aren't going to hurt now, are they? It is always more qualified traffic.

Getting more inbound links for your site should be part of your monthly marketing routine. It is the fundamental concept of the web and now, thanks to Google, an important part of you marketing strategy.

Bottom line

You should design your website for the people who will be using it and not for any search engines - this is what will ensure the success of your site.

*** Additional note - I originally wrote this article in 2002 when there were viable arguements for the benefits of PR. Since then, the suspected impact of PR has decreased and currently the PR displayed using Google's toolbar is a several month old reflection of "actual" PageRank used by Google. It's still not worth anything other than having something to look at.

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